Milwaukee politician Vel Phillips died in 2018 at age 94. Six years after her death, recognition of her monumental impact on Milwaukee and Wisconsin continues to grow.
In 2024, it can be hard to appreciate the dedication and tenacity it took for Phillips to succeed, starting her political career in 1956 at age 32. But here’s a reminder of her many “firsts”: Phillips was the first Black person and first woman to serve on the Milwaukee Common Council, the first Black person elected to statewide office in Wisconsin, and the first Black person elected to the Democratic Party’s national committee.
From pioneering open housing legislation to serving as Wisconsin’s secretary of state, Phillips influenced countless crucial moments in history. Recently, she was honored with a statue at the state Capitol and a plaza in Milwaukee.
Writer Barbara Miner explored Phillips’ history and impact in an article for this month’s Milwaukee Magazine.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Phillips grew up in a family that was part of the city’s established African American community. Her father was a small businessman, which afforded her family relative comfort. It wasn’t until she began going door to door with the League of Women Voters that she saw the conditions others in the city were living in. This initially disturbed Phillips, but it ultimately inspired her to get involved. As Miner describes, Phillips’ mother also played a significant role in shaping her values.
“Her mother was clearly her strongest influence, and one of the things that is so associated with Vel is something her mother always said, which was, ‘Dream big.’ And Vel took that and other lessons from her mother to heart,” she notes.
When Phillips began her political career, the working environment she entered was vastly different from today. “The 1950s, on some levels, could as well be the 18th Century in terms of how different it is from today,” Miner says, “and I grew up in the ’50s. But it’s hard, I think, sometimes, to appreciate what that culture was like for women and for Black people, but particularly women.”
For example, oral contraception wasn’t approved for use until the 1960s, and it wasn’t until 1974 — 22 years after Phillips began her career in public service — that women were allowed to have their own bank account or credit card. “So the ’50s were a complicated decade coming off of World War II that saw economic prosperity in many ways. But life for a lot of women and people of color was very different. After the war, women were expected to go home and make babies,” Miner says.
In Milwaukee, Phillips had to navigate a misogynistic environment as soon as she entered the Common Council chamber. However, it was her status as a Black politician that posed the biggest challenge to her family’s safety. This became even more pronounced when she began working on housing reform, which would become a central part of her legacy. Phillips was the first person to introduce open housing legislation in 1962. The proposal sought to prohibit discrimination against African Americans in renting and buying homes — a practice that was common and openly practiced at the time. Phillips was the only member to vote in favor of the legislation year after year since she first introduced it according to Miner.
"It's more important to do the right thing."
-Vel R. Phillips
Five years later, in 1967, civil unrest erupted as national protests broke out in cities across the U.S., including Detroit and Newark. Milwaukee experienced its own unrest, prompting the local government to shut the city down entirely, even suspending mail delivery services. However, once the curfew was lifted, protests promptly resumed, leading to 200 nights of unrest calling for housing reform. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, federal open housing legislation was passed shortly after, and Milwaukee implemented its own open housing measures soon afterward.
Phillips influence spread beyond Wisconsin, as she also served on a national stage. “In 1958, she was elected to the Democratic National Committee as its first African American woman, and then two years later, at the convention, [Senator and later President John F.] Kennedy was nominated,” says Miner. There was initial hesitance to adopt a civil rights platform into the Democratic Party’s strategy over fears of losing support from the southern segregationist regions of the country. Phillips, standing firm in her convictions, argued that doing the right thing was more important. She eventually helped encourage the platform’s adoption and Senator Kennedy went on to win the 1960 presidential election, proving her right.
Miner wrote a previous article about Phillips in 2005 and says she spent time with Phillips and got to know her personally. She discovered that, in her private life, Phillips was witty, funny, a little eccentric, cantankerous, and loved to talk on the phone.
She had a husband, Dale, and two sons, Dale Jr. and Michael. Her husband’s dedication to tending to the home allowed Phillips to thrive and excel in the political arena. She was even contemplating a run for Congress when her husband suddenly died of a heart attack. Tradegy struck the Phillips family again in 2005, when Dale Jr. died by suicide after struggling with a schizophrenia diagnosis since age 17.
“But Vel’s spirit was resilient," says Miner. "She was able to come back. It took a while, but she came back."
She adds, “[Vel] was a people person, and even when she was older and couldn’t get around as much, she loved connecting with people.”
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