What do we call her?
They had a big story about that in the paper.
I said, "Oh, my God."
And they decided that I should be addressed as
"Madame Alderman."
They hardly ever did it, number one, and I was glad!
I just wanted be an alderman.
>> Phillips went to work at City Hall, but her excitement
over her historic win was quickly tempered.
>> She was treated like a dog by her co-aldermen.
>> Phillips was urged by fellow Council members to join
the Aldermen's Wives Club.
>> I went to the Alderman's Wives, the first meeting.
They just talked about baby formula and stuff like that.
It was just unbelievable.
>> Milwaukee aldermen were required to share offices.
Council chairmen Martin Schreiber
called Phillips in to talk.
>> And then I caught it right away.
I said, "And no one wants to be with me."
Well, you can tell I wasn't that ugly.
He said, "They're afraid to be with you because you are
a woman and you're black."
I said, "I want my own office.
Just put me by myself.
If they don't want to be with me, I sure as hell
don't want to be with them."
But I talked real big about it but it hurt me really
deep down.
I just thought, why did I even try this?
There were many nights when I would let my husband know
that I cried myself to sleep.
>> When she's treated this way right in front of the whole
city, you bet she wasn't involved in the back room
discussions.
The business is done in the back rooms,
and she was not.
>> Dale was worried about his wife,
and her career.
>> We must have some policy about what happens here in
the Common Council chambers.
I think that students coming down--
I was gonna be on television, and I was excited because
I had never been on the television before.
So soon as I got home I called my husband, "Did you watch it?"
First thing he said, "It was not a pretty picture.
You interrupted Schreiber three times,
you interrupted Mortier.
They just didn't know how to handle it, at all.
And you took full advantage."
[laughter] But let me tell you,
it never happened again.
I changed.
Talk less and do more.
>> Dale was always there to call it as it was.
Just an understanding of how things worked,
a knowledge of the political animal.
>> A brilliant strategist.
Brilliant in knowing when to push just this much
and not that much more.
>> Vel is energetic and sometimes going in several
directions at once, so to have that counterbalance,
that council that encourages reflection or to take a moment
to pause.
There's no doubt that he was central to her political career
and to her rise and her achievement, her success.
>> So she's figuring out, she's spending her time
as a good lawyer, reading the rules, how things are done.
>> I think I was a quiet force.
♪ ♪