The following poem comes from a book called Two Hundred Nights and One Day written by Margaret (Peggy) Rozga. Two Hundred Nights is a unique book of poetry that recounts the history of the Milwaukee Open Housing Campaign in 1967. This campaign was led by a civil rights activist named Father James Groppi. He was an Italian man who was a real fighter for human rights. He worked closely with the Milwaukee NAACP. Peggy Rozga marched along with Father Groppi and countless black people. She was also jailed for participating in these freedom marches. Peggy Rozga married Father Groppi and is currently an English professor. I recommend the book to those who are interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement (especially in the North).

As I work on my ongoing police brutality curriculum project, I have been collecting poems, music, stories, etc… This poem is one of the things that I have come across in my research.

Where Lawrence Learns the Law
South 50th Street

Cops were always parked right
in front of the Freedom House.
Saying there were threats against us.
They had to protect us.

Yeah, they protecting us,
but we the only ones going to jail.
One night, they arrested a girl
for throwing her cigarette on the sidewalk.

We went outside to see what was going on,
they arrested us, too. Took us downtown.
Fingerprinted us. Photographed us.
Yeah, for dropping a cigarette.

So we had to return the favor, right?
Drove out to Chief Breier’s house
I’ll never forget that address.

We parked in that all-White neighborhood,
sat out there all night. Guarding the Chief of Police.
Hey, there’d been threats against him.
We didn’t want anything to happen to him.

Next night we’re out there again.
What thanks do we get?
We’re arrested
for guarding the chief of police
without a private detective’s license.