State+and+Moral+Citizen

A moral citizen has unique attributes that set them apart from the legal or political citizen. As the name suggests, there is an expectation of virtuous behavior that isn’t required of the political citizen. Even though we may hope for ethical behavior from our citizens, recently alleged scandals involving [|community groups] and [|elected officials]show that’s not always the case.

Another distinction of the moral citizen, is that a moral citizen feels obligated to get laws that they feel are unjust either changed or repealed. Citizens of this group have wrote letters to their local paper, staged boycotts, sit-ins, marches and other peaceful ways to get their message across. History has shown that even if these acts of civil disobedience are peaceful, sometimes they have been arrested. It is this potential of getting arrested that differentiates the moral citizen from the legal citizen; after all, a legal citizen follows the law.

Over the last century, some very significant social changes in the United States have come about due to the actions of moral citizens; and Wisconsin residents have played their part. Two such individuals are [|Theodora Winton Youmans] and [|Father James Groppi.]

Theodora was the state leader in the [|Women’s Suffrage] movement from 1896 until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1919. Although the right for women to vote came from a constitutional amendment, Theodora and other women’s rights activists in Wisconsin initially tried to gain the right to vote at the state level. Theodora was a freelance journalist that became the associate editor of the Waukesha Freeman. It was her prominence in the media and her organizational skills that made her a leader in the Wisconsin suffrage movement. However, after years of seeing gains in women’s rights wiped out by the legislature and governor culminating in the 1912 defeat of a state referendum on suffrage, the Wisconsin suffrage movement turned its focus to the national cause. Oddly enough, only 7 years after defeating the state referendum on suffrage 2 to 1, Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th amendment.

Another example of a moral citizen is Father James Groppi. Father Groppi was the priest at St. Boniface Church in Milwaukee’s inner city, as well as, a local leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. As the priest of a largely African American congregation and the leader of the Milwaukee Youth Council of the NAACP, Father Groppi was sensitive to the issues facing members of the African American community. Fr. Groppi was also no stranger to nonviolent protests. He staged protests in front of the houses of judges who were members the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE); which had a “whites only” membership policy at the time. Fr. Groppi believed that a judge who was a member of a group that discriminated against African Americans would not likely be fair to an African American defendant in their courtroom. However, it was the work Fr. Groppi did on behalf of fair housing that he is most remembered for. From June 1967 to April 1968, Fr. Groppi and fellow protesters organized 200 marches. Often, these marches crossed the 16th Street viaduct which separated the African American and the Polish neighborhoods of Milwaukee. Along the way, they were often met with large counter protests where they were verbally and physically assaulted, had tear gas fired at them and even arrested; Fr. Groppi was arrested at least 9 times. In the end, like the women’s suffrage movement, it took the federal government to bring about fair housing laws. After Fr. Groppi's death, the bridge over the 16th Street viaduct that Fr. Groppi and other fair housing protesters crossed many time during their protests was renamed the James Groppi Unity Bridge.



Copyright © 2006 [|Sulfur] A historical sign for the James E. Groppi Unity Bridge (formally 16th Street Viaduct), along the Hank Aaron State Trail and Menomonee River in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Theodora Youmans and Father Groppi are certainly not the only examples of a moral citizen. However, they are excellent examples of how influential groups of moral citizens united for a common cause can be. Although both struggles took a considerable amount of time and effort, in the end, both struggles were succesfull because of the determination and persistance of the moral citizen.