Ice Bowl freeze numbed open housing marchers, too
The same day the Green Bay Packers played in the Ice Bowl, about 50 people bundled up and took to the streets of Milwaukee to continue the fight for open housing.
The surprise cold front that turned Lambeau Field into the fabled frozen tundra on Dec. 31, 1967, smacked Milwaukee hard, too. At midnight the day before, it was 18 degrees, but temperatures tumbled from there, to an overnight low on New Year’s Eve of 12 below zero. In fact, according to a Milwaukee Sentinel story on Jan. 1, 1968, the New Year’s Eve deep freeze was that winter’s first below-zero day.
“On New Year’s Eve, many cars became stalled on city streets and expressways as drivers headed out for the traditional night of celebrating,” the Sentinel reported. “... Taxicab companies reported they were swamped with calls from persons who gave up trying to start their cars or were unable to obtain help from service station operators who had closed early to begin their own celebrations.”
But the unexpected cold wave didn’t stop the push for open housing in Milwaukee.
Since Aug. 28, 1967, an effort led by local civil rights leaders, including the NAACP Youth Council and its adviser, Father James E. Groppi, and Ald. Vel Phillips, held marches every day in Milwaukee, calling for a stronger open-housing ordinance in the city.
Although the marches began in summer, they continued through fall and into the winter. There had been snow, but nothing like the frigid temperatures that hit Milwaukee New Year’s Eve.
Still, the march continued as planned, for what was the 126th consecutive day of marches.
“Father Groppi and about 50 others Sunday afternoon walked for 18 blocks in 7 degrees below zero temperatures on the near south side,” the Sentinel reported Jan. 1.
The photo accompanying the story showed Groppi bundled up and Phillips barely recognizable in hat, mittens and ski mask.
Earlier in December, the Milwaukee Common Council approved the city’s first open housing ordinance, but it was similar to the state of Wisconsin’s weak open housing law, only covering about 25% of the housing stock in Wisconsin. Phillips, who had introduced stronger open housing proposals each of the previous four years, had voted against the ordinance.
Groppi told the Sentinel that talks were underway to plan additional strategies to get a stronger open housing law in Milwaukee. But even with
the brutally cold January weather, he said, the marches would continue.
The marches are making “a good impact on the power structure” of the city, Groppi said.
The marches continued the following day, Jan. 1, with more than 60 demonstrators marching for 14 blocks through a north side neighborhood, the Sentinel reported on Jan. 2. Temperatures hit 11 below, making it the coldest New Year’s Day in Milwaukee to date, according to the Sentinel.
On Jan. 4, the Sentinel reported that the open housing campaign would be expanding, with four more civil rights groups joining the Youth Council’s efforts.
The president of one of the groups — Black, Active and Determined, or BAD — told the Sentinel that the organizations’ aim was to coordinate activities in the struggle for open housing.
“Everyone still has his own programs, but we hope in this way to make the programs communitywide,” BAD president Lowell E. Thomas said.
One thing was certain: The marches were going to continue.
“The (Youth Council) Commandos have voted to continue the marches, and the marches will continue until the Commandos decided otherwise,” Lawrence Friend, president of the NAACP Youth Council, told the Sentinel.
The marches continued for 200 days, ending in mid-March. Milwaukee finally passed a stronger open housing ordinance on April 30, 1968.