[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H8163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING VEL R. PHILLIPS

  (Ms. MOORE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the House is going to take up and, 
hopefully, pass legislation that I have introduced to honor a Wisconsin 
hero and one of my she-roes, Vel R. Phillips. The bill would designate 
a post office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in her honor.
  Vel was the first of so many things: the first African American and 
the first woman to become an alderman in the city of Milwaukee; the 
first African American woman to graduate from the University of 
Wisconsin-Madison Law School; the first African American judge in 
Milwaukee County; the first and only African American to win election 
statewide in Wisconsin.
  But her life and contributions cannot simply be summed up by merely 
adding up her many firsts. Such an approach gives short shrift of her 
local and national impact. For you see, Mr. Speaker, she was a soldier 
for social justice in the national movement for desegregation in 
housing in the open housing movement.
  I first met Vel when I was 16 years old, and she was the judge in an 
oratorical contest. That encounter has made a lifelong impact on me.
  Vel passed away earlier this year in her 90s, but her legacy of love, 
service, and commitment lives on.

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