“Her life and work has impacted countless Wisconsinites, so much so that all Wisconsin students should know about and recognize her,” Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde said. Screenshot via WisEye.

The Legislative Black Caucus proposed Tuesday that Wisconsin make Vel Phillips’ birthday — Feb. 18 — a special day of observance in Wisconsin schools. 

Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde (D-Milwaukee), a bill coauthor, recognized Phillips’ lengthy list of ‘firsts’ at a press conference Tuesday morning, saying that “far too few” Wisconsinites know about her legacy. 

Phillips was Wisconsin’s first Black statewide elected official, serving as secretary of state from 1979 to 1983. She also served as Wisconsin’s first Black judge and the first woman judge in Milwaukee County and was the first Black woman to graduate from University of Wisconsin Law School.

Phillips was the first African American and the first woman to be elected as a Milwaukee Common Council alder. She was an activist who advocated fair and affordable housing in Milwaukee, including introducing the Phillips Housing Ordinance in 1962, which would have outlawed racial discrimination among landlords and real estate agents in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Common Council finally adopted an open housing ordinance in April 1968 after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the U.S. Congress passed the Fair Housing Act of 1968. 

Phillips passed away on April 17, 2018. Her 101st birthday was Tuesday. 

“Her life and work has impacted countless Wisconsinites, so much so that all Wisconsin students should know about and recognize her,” Moore Omokunde said.

Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) said at a press conference that Phillips “wasn’t just a leader. She was a force of nature. She refused to accept the limits placed on her as an African American woman and as a woman in general, and she made sure that no one coming after her had to suffer those barriers,” Johnson said. “Milwaukee is the city that it is today in part due to Vel Phillips.

“She wasn’t just making history. She was paving the way for the rest of us — for Black women in Wisconsin who still face barriers, for girls who need to see what’s possible and for every person who has ever been told to wait their turn,” Johnson said. “That’s what this bill is about — ensuring Vel Phillips’ story is told for generations to come. Making Feb. 18 a special observance day isn’t just about remembering Vel Phillips. It’s about teaching our kids what she stood for, making sure her name, her fight, her legacy lives on.” 

There are 21 special observance days in Wisconsin’s school calendar, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Susan B. Anthony’s birthday, Environmental Awareness Day, Bullying Awareness Day, September 11 Observance Day, Veterans Day and Robert La Follette Sr. Day.

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) states on its website that observance days can “teach the elements of tradition that preserve U.S. society and foster an awareness of our cultural heritage” and “can be part of a rich social studies curriculum that gives these individuals and events proper emphasis, both in the context of Wisconsin and U.S. history and in relation to their effect on or improvement of our political, economic and social institutions.” 

Mikki Maddox, a teacher at Necedah Area High School, is part of the reason the caucus brought the legislation forward. She said she started doing announcements for the school and marking the observance days in her calendar. 

“I noticed that there are quite a few gaps,” Maddox said, adding that she contacted DPI and wrote to Senate and Assembly members about observance days. 

“I knew this was a person that needed to be recognized all over the state for her courage and for her willingness to stand up,” Maddox said. 

Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski honored her predecessor at the press conference, recalling that she learned about Phillips in school only after taking her own initiative to look for women important to Wisconsin history and coming across her in a textbook.

“As Wisconsin’s secretary of state I stand on Vel’s shoulders. … She is a trailblazer and Wisconsin is better because of Vel’s leadership,” Godlewski said. “Too many students [are] just like the one that I was sitting in the classroom flipping through my history books and not seeing that full picture of who actually shaped our state.” 

The bill, Godlewski said, would ensure “every student learns about her, not just as an afterthought, but as a fundamental part of our state history.” 

The bill, which is currently being circulated for co-sponsorship, will need bipartisan support to pass in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Moore Omokunde said he doesn’t think recent hostility towards diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts from Republicans will hinder it, adding that many observances of Phillips already exist throughout Wisconsin. An outdoor statue of Phillips was installed outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in September 2024 — an action that received bipartisan approval in 2021. Phillips also had a Madison high school renamed for her in 2021 and a road in Milwaukee is named after her.

“We already have the statue. Vel Phillips has a street in Milwaukee… it’s really a no-brainer,” Moore Omokunde said. 

The bill is a continuation of lawmakers’ work to recognize and celebrate Black Wisconsinites during Black History Month. Early this month, lawmakers re-introduced a resolution to proclaim February as Black History Month.

Sen. Dora Drake speaks at the 2025 Black History Month kickoff. Screenshot via WisEye.

The Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus kicked off its celebration of Black History Month at the Capitol Tuesday by recognizing the work that many have done to advance Black Wisconsinites and encouraging community advocacy.

Lawmakers noted that the celebration comes at a moment when diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are being targeted by the federal government and their fellow state lawmakers. 

Rep. Kalan Haywood (D-Milwaukee) said that in 2025 it is “clear that being Black is being attacked. They started with being woke and went to CRT (critical race theory) and went to DEI, but at the end of the day it’s an attack on being Black.” 

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation declaring February Black History Month, but he also signed an executive order last month to end DEI efforts — a move that led the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs to remove webpages  — and the U.S. Defense Department declared “identity months dead.” Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin have also been taking actions to identify and attempt to limit or eliminate DEI initiatives. 

Haywood encouraged people to “step up” and become involved in the efforts to move the state forward. The caucus announced that it would have its annual “Black Advocacy Day,” which is a time for community members to meet with Wisconsin lawmakers and learn about advocating for issues important to them, on Feb. 27. 

“Right now is not the time to sit on the sidelines and watch what’s happening,” Haywood said. “It is time to get in the game. … As bold and as aggressive and blunt as they are about the attacks, we gotta be as bold and aggressive about protecting the past and the future so that we can move forward.”

Part of the caucus’ recognition of the month includes a resolution to officially proclaim February Black History Month. The resolution acknowledges that enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia over 400 years ago and acknowledges the history of Black History Month, which has its roots in Carter G. Woodson’s “Negro History Week” founded in 1926.

“Both enslaved and free people of African descent have participated in every aspect of America’s effort to secure, protect, and advance the cause of freedom and civil rights, and have stories that are an inspiration to all citizens, that reflect the triumph of the human spirit, and that offer the hopes of everyday people to rise above both prejudice and circumstance and to build lives of dignity,” the resolution draft states. 

The resolution recognizes 14 Black Americans, including several Wisconsinites. They include Paul Higginbotham, the first African-American judge to serve on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals; Marcia Anderson, a retired senior officer of the United States Army Reserve from Beloit, Wisconsin, who was the first Black woman to become a major general; Shakita LaGrant-McClain, the executive director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, and Samuel Coleman, the assistant superintendent of instruction for the Oshkosh Area School District.

Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee) said the month is “a time where we are celebrating the advancements, the struggles and the victories that African Americans have achieved, not just in Wisconsin, but nationwide.”

Even as lawmakers celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans across history, they emphasized that more work has to be done. 

“We have a list of programs that focus on housing, reentry criminal justice initiatives, health and so much more, but what’s very important … is that we are all called — whether we are fighting for justice, standing on the value that we stand on, investing and caring for our children and their education, or making sure that workers have rights and are paid a fair wage,” Drake said. “The time is now to do the job, and the time is now for us to work collectively and to push for justice.”