>> After graduation, they returned to Milwaukee where they
opened up their law office, Phillips and Phillips, and were
ready to start a family.
>> We'd been trying and trying and trying.
>> They had had a lot of difficulty.
They wanted a family, and they'd almost given up.
>> Life for the young couple was busy.
In addition to practicing law, Vel Phillips volunteered
in her community.
She joined the League of Women Voters to register her neighbors
to vote, and also went door-to-door in the nearby
neighborhood of Bronzeville.
>> I had never seen that kind of poverty.
They would have the oven on and the door open.
That was the heat.
The rest of the house would be cold.
And then children would be running around,
and I thought that was dangerous, really.
>> What she saw, when you get behind the doors,
the broken down plumbing, the walls coming down,
the ceilings coming down, the conditions.
>> White supremacy dictates that white people are better
and you see that in material circumstances.
This is why physical space is really important,
whether it's marking separate schools or train cars
and things.
They're not just separate, but they're inferior.
>> The houses might have been in disrepair, but the people
weren't in disrepair.
They were good people.
And they might have been poor, but they were human beings.
>> These people are working, these people are
paying taxes.
It's good old taxation without representation.
>> The latest census had revealed a surge in Milwaukee's
African American population.
With it, a new ward was created and the possibility of
an African American alderman on the all-white,
all-male Common Council.
>> The Common Council in Milwaukee is a very powerful
city council.
>> And even when you are not able to carry the day on
a legislative measure, you have a vocal platform,
you're quoted in the paper, so you can put black experience,
black interest out there.
You can be on record, too.
That was just not possible before.
>> 1956 would be the first election to include
the new ward.
>> Doyle Geter, who worked for the Journal,
I called him and I said, "Doyle, how many women had been
on the council?"
He said, "Oh, you're thinking about running?"
And I said, "Yes."
He said, "Oh, Vel, I wouldn't do it.
You just wouldn't fit, you're just too dainty.
A lot of men, they smoke and drink."
I said, "Well, I don't have to drink to be a good
city council person."
>> The new 2nd Ward included both black and white
neighborhoods.
>> Realistically, I think even if you got every
African American adult over 21, was the age then, to vote,
it wouldn't have been enough.
You're going to need some white votes.
>> Phillips decided that if she wanted to get elected,
she would have to hide that she was black,
and that she was a woman.
Campaign literature listed her as "Vel" instead of her
given name, Velvalea.
And in the white areas of the 2nd Ward, Phillips made sure
that the campaign literature included no photos of her.
>> I mean, I see it as just a savvy, political and
strategic decision to win.
>> To help get her name out, she turned to Milwaukee's
white liberals.
>> Vel didn't have that artificial barrier in her head
between blacks and whites.
She was just able to get along with everybody.
That was such an admirable characteristic of hers.
>> Her district was half white and half black.
I was given the white district and her little card had her name
and her background.
But in the black district, the cards had her picture.
And so I was passing out cards in the white area and some guy
said, "How come you don't have her picture on this card?"
I said, "Well, we have many different kinds of literature."
[laughter] >> One morning during
the campaign, Vel got a phone call from her doctor.
>> The doctor called me and said I had to come back.
I said, "Oh, I'm too busy.
Why don't we wait until after the election?"
The doctor said that, "It's very important that you come in."
I told that to my mother and she started crying.
"It's the big C."
So when I went in to the doctor I was then convinced it was
cancer, so I stood up.
He said, "Sit down, Mrs. Phillips."
I said, "No.
When I'm getting bad news, I like to stand up."
He said, "Do you know how to knit?"
I said, "What does that have to do with anything?"
He said, "Because you're pregnant."
"You've got to be kidding!"
>> Stunned, Phillips walked back into the waiting room to Dale.
>> I said, "Honey, I'm pregnant."
He says, "Hug me.
Oh, my God, baby, what wonderful news!"
But I was almost in tears, because I said,
"Now I'll never win."
I was so thrilled that I was pregnant, but I was
afraid that it would cost me the election.
And that really frightened me.
>> You're talking, the mid-1950s.
Maybe you finally convince them to vote for you as a woman
and as an African American, but you as a mother?
>> Phillips decided to conceal her pregnancy until after
the election.
>> Right away I started wearing stuff that would hide it.
You know the artists wear those kind of coats?
I bought some of those and nobody knew I was pregnant.
And I would come home and I would just be worn out.
My husband would rub my feet.
"Oh, honey, you're doing a wonderful job."
>> Still campaigning on Election Day, the Phillips'
offered to drive fellow residents to the polls.
Vel asked one white couple whom they were planning to vote for.
>> The woman said, "We're voting for Vel Phillips."
And the man said, "Yes, we think he's very qualified.
We think he's a very good candidate."
I stopped like that, and my husband said, "Oh, good.
We think he's great.
You're voting for the right person."
[laughter] >> On April 3rd, 1956,
Vel Phillips was elected as Milwaukee's first female and
first African American alderman.
>> Milwaukee was incorporated in 1846 and this was 1956.
So it took 110 years.
And when I won, the reporter talked to me.
She said, "How does it feel to be the first woman
on the city council?"
I said, "Being on the council is a wonderful thing,
but I have something even more important and more
meaningful for me, because I'm with child.
They won't get just a woman, they'll get a woman and a half."