But housing discrimination was at the top of their list.
Five years of trying to pass Open Housing bills in
the Common Council had failed, and in 1967, Vel Phillips'
constituents looked for another strategy.
[shouts and cheers] >> And so we said, let's go
to the belly of the beast.
That's when the issue really blew up.
[dramatic music]
>> In August 1967, 200 activists marched across the
16th Street Viaduct in Milwaukee demanding the right to live
in any neighborhood in the city.
Among them the NAACP Youth Council,
Father James Groppi, a Catholic priest,
and the Commandos, a self-defense group
from the Inner Core.
>> You march across that bridge and on the opposite side
there is a mass of white people, angry white people,
letting you know that you're in the wrong part of town at
the wrong time of day.
>> Residents hurled bricks, bodily fluids, and racial slurs.
>> The size of the crowds is mind blowing.
And it's just so vicious and violent and ugly.
It's hard to minimize it.
>> Police began throwing tear gas and creating dense
plumes of smoke.
It was just mayhem and pandemonium.
At that point, I thought to myself,
this is absolutely nuts.
[sirens] >> Vel Phillips was not among
the marchers.
She watched the confrontation from home on the nightly news.
>> It was stunning.
It was horrible.
>> The next day, Milwaukee mayor, Henry Maier
tried to restore order.
>> And I urge those who live in the area of march
to please stay off the streets.
>> I came home from city hall and I just sat down and
I just had a good cry.
>> Vel needed the marchers.
She needed coverage to put pressure
on the Common Council to pass an ordinance.
>> With the ban on marches in place, Phillips was back to
where she began in 1962.
>> We were so disillusioned.
>> She joined Father Groppi and other Open Housing activists
for a rally at St. Boniface Parish.
>> This was a large church, it probably sat 1,000 people.
And it was packed, standing room only.
>> Speaking to the crowd, Father Groppi asked if they
were ready to march.
The crowd shouted its approval.
[whistles, cheers and applause] But Phillips hesitated.
She was a lawyer and an officer of the court.
If she marched in the face of the ban, she would be
in full defiance of the law.
>> Now, the line has been drawn.
You either have to be this side and support them,
or you're not.
And it's very, very violent out there in the streets.
And being in her position of power, she's this official
member of the Common Council, she's a part of the middle class
black leadership, it would have been easy for her to not go down
into the street.
It would have been defended and justified by a whole lot
of powerful people.
>> But I was fed up at that time.
>> Despite the fear and despite the counsel
from some very close to her, she makes a different choice.
Which shows that she has gone to a very different place
than many other black middle class leaders have.
>> Because it was for my fair housing,
I felt nothing was going to stop us.
>> Vel Phillips, Father Groppi, and the rest of the crowd
defied the mayor's edict and took to the street.
>> The decision was made to march.
St. Boniface was on 11th and Clark.
We got as far as 9th and North Avenue, so that's about
six blocks.
And the police closed in and started to arrest people.
Vel Phillips was one of the first arrested.
>> And they treated you like you weren't a real person.
Feeling all over you when they patted you down.
It was just demoralizing.
>> Phillips was released the next morning, but her
mother, Thelma, was not happy with her daughter's jail time.
>> Oh, gosh!
She was embarrassed.
"What will I tell my friends?"
I said, "Mom, just tell your friends that your daughter
is doing what she thinks is best in her capacity as a member of
the Milwaukee Common Council."
>> She marched again that night.
>> I think that's when she got a reputation for being
very brave, and tough.
>> The white community became increasingly violent.
>> For the most part, there was a backlash.
"How dare they do this to our city."
>> Everyone in official power starts to say,
"This is not acceptable.
We can't have this."
They're forced into that position because these images
are going, not just in Milwaukee but they're going
across the country.
It's an embarrassment to the city.
>> The Open Housing activists kept up the pressure.
>> The idea among a lot of young people, myself included,
was we're going to make the world better.
[laughter]
>> It was a close-knit feeling.
We all looked after each other.
>> If you look at the pictures of the time and the look on
her face, you can see a sense of belonging.
>> She had fought this lonely crusade for a long time
and there was something that was welcome to her.
There's a sense of connectivity, a sense of being a part
of the struggle.
>> I was trying to figure out how I really felt.
It was like, this is my work.
>> In September, after two weeks of daily marches,
the Common Council again voted 18-1 against
the Open Housing ordinance.
Phillips had run out of patience.
>> It's quite apparent to me that the members
of this honorable body, to put it in the terms of
my Commando friends, these cats are just too dumb,
just too dumb to know when they have something going for them.
It's bad enough to have to deal with a bigot,
but when you got a dumb bigot-- [cheers]
>> While Vel Phillips remained on the front lines
of the housing protests, her husband Dale
kept the home running, cooking, cleaning,
and raising their two boys.
>> My father, in some ways, was an early Mr. Mom.
>> He always did floors, whatever cooking,
whatever was necessary.
He wasn't hung up on "roles."
He was just a solid Midwest guy.
>> He was very secure.
He was a good lawyer.
He didn't feel that he was competing.
He knew that I loved what I was doing
and he wanted me to be happy.
>> They're, I think, truly a team in a real sense.
A lot of these teams, the man is the person of power
and it's the supportive woman, you know, Coretta King
or Malcolm X's wife.
And here we have the woman being the one who's out front
and achieving the power and the position and things
with a very supportive husband.
>> The growing media exposure brought unwanted attention
to Vel's home.
There were phone calls.
>> This man, he would call and say, "I'm watching you.
I think black people like yourself should go back
to Africa were you came from."
It was scary, you know, and I wondered if we should
get some guards or something.
>> She received hate-filled letters.
>> This letter said, "P.S.
If you see a brown streaks that's because I used this
for toilet paper before I sent it to you."
I had it in my hand, and I just dropped it like that.
>> Then a shot was fired into her kitchen.
>> The bullet landed right in the middle of the oven door.
>> When a bullet comes through a window in your home,
she could have said, I'm done.
Who's gonna blame her?
That's threatening on a whole different level.
You could become a crusading leader and be willing to die
for the cause and nothing will deter you.
But if we say we're gonna go kill your kids, that's an act
of terror that happened there.
>> Things were really dangerous.
That's when I sent the children to my mother.
She was living in California at the time.
They'd say, Michael especially, "Momma, why don't you come
to California?"
Just such a sad time.
>> The Open Housing marches went on for 200 days,
continuing into early 1968.
>> There was a core people who were there night after night.
>> To come everyday like clockwork,
like it was a job for over 200 days.
This little white man, he said, "I'm very confused.
What is it that you people want?"
I said, "Just say America is a big pie.
We want a piece of the pie.
We want a piece of America."
He look stunned, and he said, "That's all?"
I said, "Well, that's a great deal if you don't have it."
>> On April 4th, 1968, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
was assassinated.
Soon after, President Lyndon Johnson
and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
It included legislation that for the first time specifically
outlawed housing segregation.
>> Milwaukee is critically important to the passage of
that national civil rights act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act.
Walter Mondale cites from the Senate floor, Milwaukee
as an important case of how important the issue is
and the need for change.
>> In response to the new Federal law,
Milwaukee's Common Council approved a citywide
Open Housing ordinance.
Six years after she first introduced the ordinance,
Alderman Phillips had finally won.
>> Of course, it was just mind boggling and wonderful
to know that we really had it.
>> These are heroes.
Milwaukee heroes, Wisconsin heroes,
and American heroes, that deserve their place
in the national narrative.
If we care about justice and equality, all of us should
embrace Vel, Father Groppi, the youth council,
the Commandos, and everyone who came out to support that.
>> My mother would always tell us, "If you really want it,
don't dream small dreams.
Dream big dreams."