Vel Phillips

MADISON, Wis. — The Boys & Girls Club of Dane County has raised more than $300,000 toward efforts to create a statue in honor of Vel Phillips. Boys & Girls Club of Dane County CEO Michael Johnson shared the update Tuesday after the Greater Milwaukee Foundation Board approved a $30,000 grant. The donation puts the total well above the club’s $275,000 fundraising goal.

Vel Phillips has made her mark in Wisconsin with many firsts: first African American woman to graduate from UW Law School, first female judge in Wisconsin, first African American woman to hold statewide office in Wisconsin, as well as many more accomplishments. Carrie Braxton, Vice-President of the Wisconsin Women of Color Network, talks about the fundraising effort to place a statue of Vel Phillips on the state capitol grounds.

It still has a way to go before it becomes reality, but it was good news last month when it was announced that $125,000 has already been raised to erect a statue of the late Vel Phillips on the Capitol Square, including $100,000 in grants from the Rennebohm and Madison Community Foundations.

There's so much to learn about Vel Phillips' life and legacy, but here are five of her "firsts" that positively impacted Milwaukee forever. This article originally ran in 2019. Velvalea Hortense Rodgers "Vel" Phillips – a lawyer, judge, politician, Civil Rights activist and lifelong Milwaukeean – passed on April 17,...

When two State Capitol statues were removed by protesters of police brutality this summer, a new statue was proposed–one of trailblazer Vel Phillips. Phillips broke barrier after barrier during her life. Now, she is poised to be the first statue of a person of color on capitol grounds. Vel Phillips...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - New donations to an effort to place a statue honoring Wisconsin civil rights leader Vel Phillips on the grounds of the state Capitol have pushed the effort beyond halfway to its fundraising goal. The Vel Phillips Statue Task Force announced Thursday that it has received $100,000...

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The late Vel Phillips achieved so many firsts during her life that we don't have time to list them all. Now the effort to make her the first person of color honored with a statue at Wisconsin's State Capitol is moving forward. She fought for civil...

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Madison Community Foundation and Oscar Rennebohm Foundation teamed up Thursday to announce a $100,000 combined grant to help pay for a statue to honor former Wisconsin Secretary of State Velvalea “Vel” Phillips on the state capitol grounds. In January, the board in charge of decorations...

The Vel Phillips Task Force held a press conference at Milwaukee City Hall Thursday to announce $100,000 in donations to help fund a statue of Phillips at the Wisconsin state capitol in downtown Madison. The donations announced were $50,000 each from the Madison Community Foundation and Rennenbohm Foundation. The six-figure...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — New donations to an effort to place a statue honoring Wisconsin civil rights leader Vel Phillips on the grounds of the state Capitol have pushed the effort beyond halfway to its fundraising goal. The Vel Phillips Statue Task Force announced Thursday that it has received $100,000 in donations from the Madison Community Foundation and Rennenbohm Foundation. The announcement, which comes on Phillips’ birthday, brings the total raised so far to $126,461 with a goal of $250,000. Phillips, who died in 2018, was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law Schooland the first Black judge in Wisconsin. She was also the first female and Black individual elected to statewide office in Wisconsin as Secretary of State.

To have a statue of the late civil rights legend and political trailblazer Vel Phillips, Wisconsin’s first Black secretary of state, outside of the state Capitol building in downtown Madison would mean so much to so many people, including State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) who would see it every day at her work.