He was a most unlikely Civil Rights leader. Father James Groppi was an immigrant’s son, the eleventh of 12 children who grew up behind the family’s grocery store in the Italian section of Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood.

Early in his priesthood, Groppi made a trip to Selma, Alabama, that stirred his conscience. The young cleric came back determined to join the struggle for racial justice in his hometown. I marched with Father Groppi near the start of his career as an activist. As the advisor to the NAACP Youth Council, Groppi condemned the whites-only membership policy of the Eagles Club.