Vel Phillips

Milwaukee native and UW Law School graduate Vel Phillips, who broke racial barriers by becoming the first African-American judge in Milwaukee and the first African-American secretary of state of Wisconsin, has died. She was 94. Phillips died Tuesday night April 17 2018, hours after the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously approved the Vel Phillips Trailblazer Award to be awarded every year. Born Velvalea Rodgers in Milwaukee in 1924, Phillips went to Howard University for her bachelor of arts degree, then to UW-Madison Law School, becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from the UW Law School, in 1951. Her husband Dale Phillips also graduated from UW-Madison Law School. Phillips ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Milwaukee School Board in 1953, but had a successful run for the Common Council in 1956, working to end discrimination in housing in Milwaukee as well as taking part in civil rights protests in the city, marching with Father James Groppi during the 1960s. She was appointed circuit judge in Milwaukee County in 1971, the first woman judge in the county and the first African-American judge in the state. In 1978 she was elected Wisconsin's secretary of state, the first black woman in that office. She served for four years, her election bracketed by current Secretary of State Douglas La Follette, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor the year Phillips was elected. She also was the first African American to be elected a member of the Democratic National Committee.