Cited in a bill of attainder for "contempt of the State Assembly" and sentenced to six months in jail, Groppi appealed to the federal courts, which quickly reversed his conviction. His last appeal was to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in Groppi v. Leslie invalidated the contempt citation on notice and due process grounds. Later years and death Groppi's ecclesiastical superiors did not always approve of his activities and transferred him to St. Michael's Church in 1970. Groppi repeatedly requested to be assigned to a parish in the African-American community, several of which were opened in the archdiocese during his priesthood, but he was consistently rebuffed. Groppi eventually resigned from the priesthood in 1976 and began studies at Antioch School of Law. Groppi later married Margaret Rozga, who became an English professor at the University of Wisconsin–Waukesha. They had three children together. From 1975 to 1976, Groppi worked for the Tri-County Voluntary Service Committee, where he was responsible for recruiting and supervising VISTA volunteers in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties. He rose again to public attention when he joined Marlon Brando to mediate the clash between the Menominee Indians and the Alexian Brothers at the Alexian Novitiate in Gresham, Wisconsin, in 1975. The Menominee wanted to reclaim the land on which the Novitiate is located. Groppi attended the Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria, Virginia, during the fall of 1978. In January 1979, he continued preparations for the Episcopal priesthood by working for St. Andrews Church, an inner-city parish in Detroit, Michigan. However, his lifelong commitment to Catholicism caused him to question whether it was spiritually possible for him to continue conversion to the Episcopal priesthood, and he aborted that pursuit later that year. In 1977, Groppi became a bus driver for the Milwaukee County Transit System. In 1983 he was elected president of the bus drivers' local union, ATU 998. In 1984, he became partially paralyzed following an unsuccessful surgery that aimed to remove a cancerous brain tumor. He died the following year due to complications of the same cancer. Groppi is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Milwaukee. His papers are maintained at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. See also Philip Berrigan References Sources Aukofer, Frank A. City With a Chance. Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee. 1968 Jones, Patrick. "'Not a Color But an Attitude': Fr. James Groppi and Black Power Politics in Milwaukee," in Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements,