Wisconsin: The Pulpit v. the Bench

It was a most unlikely confrontation. In a clear-cut civil rights dispute, both protagonists were white. One was a judge, the upholder of law and order, the other a clergyman, ordinarily the advocate of peace and patience. Yet the test of wills between Milwaukee Circuit Judge Robert Cannon and the Rev. James Edward Groppi (rhymes with puppy), a Roman Catholic priest, kept the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa in constant turmoil for two weeks, and last week brought out the Wisconsin National Guard to keep peace for the first time in 32 years.

Politics & Eagles. The trouble began when Father Groppi, 35, led the N.A.A.C.P. Youth Council in picketing Judge Cannon’s house in Wauwatosa to protest his membership in the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a men’s organization that, like such similar groups as the Elks, Moose and Odd Fellows, specifically excludes non-Caucasians (one prominent Eagle: David Lawrence, chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing). The council picked Cannon because he has a generally liberal record, figured that he would therefore be the most likely to give in and leave the white-only nest.

In this it was mistaken. A vocal opponent of the discriminatory clause within the Milwaukee aerie, Judge Cannon, 49, argued that he could best change Eagle policy by remaining within the organization—and that he would not, in any event, yield to pressure. Said he: “I’ve got my Irish up now.” Actually, a majority of judges in Milwaukee—17 out of 26—are members of the Eagles, which generally helps informally in their elections, and most look upon membership as a positive political advantage despite the obvious strains between a judge’s duty to be impartial and the clear partiality of the Eagles.

More a Messiah. Up against Judge Cannon’s immovability came Father Groppi, who is the assistant pastor of St. Boniface’s, a church with an almost all-Negro congregation in the heart of the city’s “Inner Core,” or black ghetto. The priest has made the Negro’s problems his own; he participated in last year’s famous Selma march and made frequent trips to Mississippi to carry food, books and clothing to civil rights workers. Before the picketing of Judge Cannon’s home, he had become well known in Milwaukee—and earned a reprimand from his ecclesiastical superiors—for organizing a four-day boycott of public schools to protest de facto segregation.

To Negro youths around St. Boniface’s, Groppi is more a messiah than a leader. To be even closer to them, the priest moved last July from his rectory to Freedom House, a residence and office he set up for the youth council. So “totally immersed” in the Negro’s problems is he, says his superior, St. Boniface’s Pastor Eugene Bleidorn, that Father Groppi is “a Negro with white skin.” Adds Groppi himself: “I will picket with the Negro, I will go South with him, I will go to jail with him, and I will hang with him if it need be.”

Groppi contended that a judge—no matter what his professed liberality—could not fairly judge Negroes and whites if he belonged to an organization that barred Negroes. “How would you feel,” he asked a group of white religious leaders, “if you had to go before a judge who had a black face and belonged to the Black Muslims?” Did he consider his own activism a breach of clerical ethics? “Christ,” he replied, “was not a peaceful, meek type of individual. He caused a great deal of conflict.”

“Nothing Is the Same.” So did Father Groppi. For eleven nights, his youthful band marched in front of Judge Cannon’s large brick colonial house, and for eleven nights crowds of whites gathered to jeer. “What are you niggers doing here?” yelled the mob, adding, “Kill! Kill! Kill the jungle bunnies!” while Judge Cannon watched, almost unbelieving, from the inside. “Nothing is the same any more,” he said. Soon, eggs and rocks followed the invective, and the number of hecklers rose to 2,000. On the advice of local authorities, Governor Warren Knowles last week sent in 500 National Guardsmen to protect the demonstrators.

Despite the violence and the complaints of many who feel that a priest has no business meddling so deeply in civil affairs. Archbishop William Cousin has refused to call off Father Groppi. He has even, through an editorial in the local Catholic newspaper, given his tacit approval. Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier and at least one judge have quietly dropped Eagle membership since Groppi began his crusade, and last week some 40 other clergymen, from nearly every faith, joined him in opposing the discriminatory clause.

Yet Judge Cannon refused to give in -“I will remain in the Eagles as long as I live”—and Father Groppi’s pickets looked to new targets among the Eagles on the bench. They marched outside the home of County Judge Christ Seraphim and threatened to lay siege to the home of Judge Robert Hansen. At week’s end, however, a partial truce was arranged by state officials, and Father Groppi agreed to stay out of Milwaukee’s police short suburbs after dark during the Labor Day weekend.