For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara O’Keeffe
kara.okeeffe@wisconsinhistory.org
608-261-9596

February 28, 2019

Wisconsin Historical Society Placed the 16^th Street Viaduct on the State Register of Historic Places

Milwaukee, Wis. - The Wisconsin Historical Society placed the 16^th Street Viaduct, also known by its name James E. Groppi Unity Bridge in Milwaukee, Milwaukee County on the State Register of Historic Places on February 15, 2019. 

The 16^th Street Viaduct has been listed in the State Register of Historic Places at the state level of significance for its associations with the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Opened in 1929, the viaduct connected the predominantly African American near north side with the historically all-white south side of Milwaukee. The valley of the Menomonee River was a considerable geographical barrier such that the south side and the near north side developed almost as two separate cities. The 16^th Street Viaduct, leading from the heart of the north side African American community to the south side, came to symbolize deeper racial and socio-economic divisions in Milwaukee. 

Discriminatory practices by real estate agents, landlords, lending institutions, and the federal government prevented African Americans from renting or purchasing homes on the south side, and in many other all-white Milwaukee neighborhoods. Beginning in August 1967 and continuing into March 1968, Father James E. Groppi, a prominent Wisconsin civil rights activist and Catholic priest, and the Youth Council of the Milwaukee Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) conducted 200 open housing marches, a number of which crossed the viaduct. Some of the marches into the south side attracted thousands of white opponents of open housing. During the first two marches, thousands of whites confronted the marchers, some shouting racist slogans and others throwing rocks, bottles, and debris at them. On those two nights, the demonstrators were trotting or running the last few hundred feet when they returned from the south side of the viaduct.

The 1967-1968 open housing campaign is one of the two most significant civil rights campaigns in Wisconsin history. Only the long effort to integrate Milwaukee’s public schools can be considered more important. The open housing campaign exemplifies the differences between northern civil rights efforts and the better-known campaigns in the American south. Legislated segregation in the South presented a more clear-cut moral issue than northern segregation, which typically resulted from residential patterns and long-standing customary practices. It was often more of a challenge to rally support in opposition to northern “de facto” segregation. Catholic nuns and priests, including Father Groppi, played an important role in the Milwaukee open housing effort. The open housing campaigns in Milwaukee and other cities played an important role in the April 1968 passage of a federal open housing law and a tough Milwaukee open housing ordinance.

The State Register is Wisconsin's official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin's heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visitwww.wisconsinhistory.org.  

About Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.

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