On August 28, 1967, protesters led by the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos crossed the 16th Street Viaduct toward Kosciuszko Park in one of the earliest demonstrations of Milwaukee’s 200 consecutive days of fair housing marches. As they entered the mostly white south side, 8,000 counterprotesters confronted them. The march continued to the park, where Father James Groppi planned to speak, but after police informed the group that their permit did not allow speeches, the marchers disbanded. They returned the next day and were met that night by 13,000 hostile white counterprotesters, and police dispersed the crowd with tear gas. Afterward, supporters gathered at the Youth Council’s 15th Street Freedom House. These back-to-back marches mirrored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 Edmund Pettus Bridge marches in Montgomery.