Vel Phillips
| Vel Phillips | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 29th Secretary of State of Wisconsin | |
|
In office January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1983 |
|
| Governor | Lee S. Dreyfus |
| Preceded by | Douglas J. La Follette |
| Succeeded by | Douglas J. La Follette |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Velvalea Rodgers February 18, 1924 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater |
Howard University University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School |
Velvalea Rodgers "Vel" Phillips (born February 18, 1924) is an American attorney who served as a local official and judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as Secretary of State of Wisconsin, often as the first woman and/or African-American in her position.
Born Velvalea Rodgers on Milwaukee's South Side, she won a national scholarship to attend Howard University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946. She returned to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School, becoming the first black woman to graduate from that school (L.L.B, 1951). She and her husband (fellow UW Law graduate Dale Phillips) became the first husband-and-wife couple to be admitted to the Wisconsin bar.
In 1953, Phillips ran for a seat on the school board of the Milwaukee Public Schools, and was the first black candidate to make it past the non-partisan citywide primary election, though she lost the runoff. Both she and her husband became active locally in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in support of a city redistricting referendum (there were at that time no black members of Milwaukee's Common Council). In 1956, Phillips became the first woman and the first African-American member of the Common Council in Milwaukee; since Common Council members were called "Alderman," she was given the title "Madam Alderman" by local officials. She would remain the only woman and only black member of that body for many years to come. Phillips frequently participated in nonviolent civil rights protests against discrimination in housing, education, and employment during the 1960s. Phillips first proposed an ordinance in 1962 to outlaw housing discrimination. In 1968 the Milwaukee Common Council approved a desegregation law, only after a federal housing law was passed. She was arrested at a rally following the firebombing of an NAACP office, the only city official to be arrested during the "long hot summer" of 1967, bringing further national media attention to the city.
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