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Meeting Date:
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6/28/2018 - 6:30 PM
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Category:
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Awards and Commendations
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Type:
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Info
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Subject:
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4. Excellence in Education Award - Vel Phillips (Posthumous)
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Strategic Plan Compatibility Statement:
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Goal 2 Student, Family and Community Engagement
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Attachments
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File Attachment:
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Background:
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Each month, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors recognizes an outstanding school, student, staff member, parent, or community member for a display of excellence, achievement, and innovation that may serve as an example to our school district and the entire Milwaukee community.
This month, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors is pleased to posthumously present the “Excellence in Education Award” to:
Vel Phillips
Vel (Velvalea) Phillips, was widely respected as an unwavering voice for justice who broke racial and gender barriers — and deeply changed Milwaukee.
Ms. Phillips attended North Division High School and won first place in a national Elks-sponsored oratorical contest, which helped finance her education at Howard University.
Vel Phillips built a career of Wisconsin “firsts” both as a woman and as an African American. In 1951, she became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin law school and first to earn a law degree. Five years later, she was the first woman -- and first African-American -- to be elected to the Milwaukee Common Council.
While on the Common Council, Phillips began introducing a fair housing ordinance in 1962, to make it illegal for real estate agents and landlords to refuse to sell or rent to African-Americans. She kept introducing it every 90 days for seven years until it passed.
In 1971, she was appointed as the first woman judge in Milwaukee County. Vel made national history as the first woman and African American elected as the Secretary of State in Wisconsin in 1978. To this day, she remains the only African American ever elected to statewide office in Wisconsin.
In 2002, she was named a distinguished professor at Marquette University's School of Law, with the goal of producing a memoir about the civil rights struggle in Milwaukee. She was a trailblazer who made history again and again.
Even as she got older, she stayed involved. It was not unusual to see her at monthly Community Brainstorming meetings to discuss issues impacting the disadvantaged or to see her serving on the board of America’s Black Holocaust Museum. She also served on the Board of the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation for several years.
The Vel Phillips Foundation, which was created in 2006, funds minority scholarships and awards grants for social justice work.
Her spirit lives on in all of the organizations she was a part of. But most importantly her spirit lives on because of all of the legislative and social action changes that were made directly because of the impact of Vel Phillips.
The Milwaukee Board of School Directors posthumously recognize and honor Vel Phillips, for her dedication, outstanding leadership, and commitment to excellence on behalf of the students of the Milwaukee Public Schools.
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Fiscal Impact Statement:
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Implementation and Assessment Plan
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Recommendation:
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Approvals:
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Recommended By:
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Signed By:
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Tina Just - Administrative Assistant III
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Signed By:
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Keith Posley, Ed.D. - Superintendent
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