In the News

By Annysa Johnson and Rick Wood

Hundreds gathered at Milwaukee's oldest African-American church Saturday to celebrate the life of Vel Phillips, the pioneering civil rights leader, who smashed racial and gender barriers as a lawyer, city council woman and Wisconsin secretary of state.

"These pinnacles were not what made Vel's story Vel's story," said U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), who eulogized Phillips at a memorial service Saturday at St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church — itself a central player in Milwaukee's civil rights history.

Moore called Phillips "a valley girl," not like the vapid teen of '80s film fame, but a fearless woman in "the valley of Psalm 23." "The one who walked through the valley of the shadow of death over and over again to bring justice and social justice to her people," Moore said.

Outside the church walls, flags were flown at half-staff in Phillips' honor across Wisconsin on Saturday, by order of Gov. Scott Walker.

Phillips died April 17 at the age of 95.

Her life was one of many firsts: The first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School; and the first woman and African-American to sit on Milwaukee's Common Council, serve as a Milwaukee County judge and be elected Wisconsin secretary of state. She also served on the Democratic National Committee, the first African-American named to the national committee of a major political party.

As a civil rights activist, she helped lead Milwaukee's open housing marches alongside Father James Groppi and the NAACP Youth Council, often in the face of violent opposition. She marched on Washington, D.C., in 1963, hearing firsthand the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. She met King when he came to Milwaukee and knew three presidents — John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter — by first name, according to her family.

Phillips was instrumental in the passage of Milwaukee's open housing ordinance in 1969, but it was long in coming. She introduced it for the first time in 1962, then every 90 days after for seven years. She was active in the NAACP and fought discrimination, not just in housing, but in education, employment and every part of society.

She was also a wife and mother. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dale Phillips, and son Dale Franklin Phillips. Son Michael Damon Phillips survives and spoke at the memorial service Saturday.

In addition to close family and friends, mourners Saturday included politicians — including Mayor Tom Barrett and city aldermen — activists, clergy and other leaders in Milwaukee's African-American community.

In a tribute, both touching and funny, Moore spoke of meeting Phillips for the first time as a nervous teen, when Phillips judged her in an oratory contest. She was, she said, a disheveled mess. But she won because Phillips "judged me by what I had in me and not by what I appeared on the outside."

Phillips knew before she died that Moore would give the eulogy and urged her not to dwell "on all those firsts."

"All it means, Vel said, is that I'm old, and I'd been around to break down all these barriers before anyone else got there," she said.

Then Phillips quipped: "Be sure to tell them that she was the first woman to use the men's bathroom in the Common Council chambers."

"They put up a sign. But she just ignored it," said Moore.

Moore said Phillips' activism came at a great personal sacrifice, but that she persisted, and used her influence to support the political careers of women who came after her.

"She encouraged women to stand up and be powerful," she said.

"If you want to be a legacy, you have to realize it ain't all about you," Moore said. "It's about giving yourself to those other people."

Phillips was born Velvalea Hortense Rodgers in Milwaukee to Thelma (Payne) Rodgers and Russell Rodgers. Her father was a garage worker and Thelma was a homemaker at the time of Vel's birth.

She attended North Division High School. Years later, Phillips recalled how hard it was to get into college preparatory courses and on the forensics team because teachers and counselors thought such activities would be of no use to black people.

She won first place in a national Elks-sponsored oratorical contest, which helped finance her education at Howard University.

She met W. Dale Phillips at a party when she was 21 and he was 22 and already in law school.

They eloped on their third date. They remained secretly married until a church wedding 10 months later, at St. Mark AME.

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