Sunday, December 16, 2012

Gender, Race, and Respectability in the Activism of Vel Phillips


           Vel Phillips, the first African-American and female alder in Milwaukee, the first woman and black Secretary of State for Wisconsin, and committed ally to the Milwaukee Civil Rights Movement for open housing in the 1960s, was depicted in the African American and mainstream press and media differently. Based on coverage of her engagement in Milwaukee’s protest movement and Common Council in African American newspapers such as The Chicago Defender and mainstream, white-oriented papers like The New York Times, Phillips’s gender tends to be masked while the Black press is more cognizant of it. Moreover, how Phillips situated herself within Black political activism and social movements both nationally and locally seems to reflect the diverging depictions in Black and mainstream media, with whites seeing her primarily as “Negro” while Black sources emphasize her gender and the politics of respectability.

           Elected as Milwaukee’s first woman and “Negro” alder in 1956, some Black sources from the period, such as The Chicago Defender, focus on her motherhood and “housewife” characteristics despite her education and background as a lawyer.[1] One piece from the New Pittsburgh Courier, a Black paper, in 1962, describes Phillips as “quite a girl” for telling off biased Southerners in the Democratic national committee for choosing the Democratic presidential candidate.[2] The author goes on to describe Phillips, “If you doubt that [Vel R. Phillips] is a "go-getter," you have only to see how far she has advanced during the past few years. Five years ago Mrs. Phillips was a struggling young lawyer and housewife..” Phillips is linked with being a housewife even before she was elected to the Milwaukee Common Council and her successful career at age 36 is linked with her being a mother and wife, evincing signs of sexism by placing her into the category of a black woman who must be attached to a male. The same newspaper article then claims she only ran for alder in 1956 because her husband, Dale Phillips, turned it down.[3]

The sexist overtones from this Black paper were present elsewhere, too. The Chicago Defender’s “Vel Phillips Has Scored Many Firsts In Her Career” from 1958, describing her after being elected as a Wisconsin Democratic member of the party’s national committee, defines her as a housewife while extolling her accomplishments.[4] The same piece evokes the politics of respectability by repeatedly tying her to motherhood and using a photograph of a smiling, well-dressed Phillips. Like all respectable Black women used in the press for civil rights causes, she is the epitome of middle-class, bourgeois sensibilities. In interviews and describing herself, Phillips states her middle-class background, however, and the fact that her knowledge of Black history and her sense of justice were tied to attending Howard University and discovering the vast world of Black intellecualism, activism, and the collective uplift ideology from figures such as Alain Locke, Howard Thurman, and E. Franklin Frazier.[5] In addition to her role as a member of the Black middle-class, tying her into the politics of respectability for Black newspapers and the public, Phillips also distanced herself from the Nation of Islam, Black “extremists” and Communists, who she saw as being fueled by the White Citizens Councils, not Black activism.[6] Thus, Phillips embraced further the politics of respectability by not allowing herself to be linked to the far-left, although she did express admiration of Malcolm X for not accepting inferior treatment as well as recognition of the NAACP Youth Council’s protests in Milwaukee.[7]

For white papers, Vel Phillips was always a Black person before a woman. Janson for The New York Times describes her as the “sole Negro on the council”[8] and Ottley from Chicago Daily Tribune mentions her as a mother.[9] The white press is also more interested in the alleged threat Phillips made at a Common Council meeting in 1967 about potential violence if her open housing bill was continually voted down by other whites on the council.[10] Thus, the white press, despite Black media’s depiction of Phillips as a respectable mother and housewife engaged in politics, emphasizes her racial identity and possible ties to rioting and violence. Neither depiction accurately reflects the life and activism of Vel Phillips during the turbulent 1960s. While sometimes engaging in militant action, such as calling out calling out Southern Democrats for their racism in the party[11] or criticizing racist plans by Southern whites to rid themselves of Blacks by paying for bus tickets to Northern cities, Phillips was also committed to working through the system with her elected position as an alder in the predominantly Black ward in Milwaukee.[12]

Surviving Common Council footage of a meeting from September 19, 1967, a year before Milwaukee finally passed an open housing ordinance, shows Phillips and white alder Robert Dwyer arguing over the implications of calling her words a “veiled threat,” with the latter arguing that violence shows the movement in Milwaukee is not a non-violent, Christian struggle and that Blacks should wait rather than expect rapid change.[13] Phillips responds by saying her earlier statement is not a veiled threat but the “facts of life” and immediate legislation to ease the overcrowded, ghetto conditions of life for Black Milwaukee should be the priority of Milwaukee’s Common Council.[14] Clearly, white colleagues and residents in Milwaukee perceived her as part of a violent or more radical contingent because of her language in Common Council meetings as well as her participation in the 200 of marches organized by the NAACP Youth Council and Father Groppi in the late 1960s. Besides referring to the potential violence and unrest that is inevitable from segregated housing and the lack of necessary services, Phillips also veered away from the politics of respectability through denunciations of white alders in Milwaukee as “dumb bigots,” quoting NAACP Youth Commandos who represented the younger, more militant rhetoric of the late 1960s.[15] Interestingly, Phillips recalls in an interview from 2007 with Barbara Miner how some of the Black Power activists criticized her for not participating in pickets outside the homes of white alders, suggesting she was interested in furthering her political career.[16]

Consequently, Phillips was perceived as radical by fellow white alders and some of the white press, while Blacks emphasized her respectability and some, specifically Black Power-oriented Milwaukee activists, did not see her as radical enough for continuing to work within the system to support strong open housing legislation. The fact that Phillips did participate in many of the demonstrations, including her arrest with Father Groppi, and received significant support and consultation from Groppi and the Youth Council in Common Council meetings, demonstrates that she was unquestionably committed to achieving successful fair housing laws for Black Milwaukee. The politics of respectability were definitely imposed upon her by the Black press and her upbringing, especially in regards to her middle-class background and education, but also in the context of her marriage and children. Regardless, Phillips was celebrated and respected in the Black press because of engagement with civil rights in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and national politics. Moreover, by participating in the demonstrations and legal battles in Milwaukee, which led to national media attention because of white counterdemonstrators’ violent resistance, Phillips helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[17] As a woman of many firsts in Wisconsin history, her involvement with Milwaukee’s civil rights struggles transcended racist and sexist portraits in the press.

 

 
 

Bibliography

Armour, George. "Vel Phillips Upsets Wis. Democrats." The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967), Jun 21, 1958. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/492990817?accountid=465.

"Black Nouveau | Program | #1827 - YouTube." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nOypBtzrE (accessed December 14, 2012).

Boynton, Ernest. "Milwaukee's Militant Learns to Compromise." Chicago Daily Defender (Big Weekend Edition) (1966-1973),Mar 23, 1968. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/493409923?accountid=465.

Decade of Discontent 1960-1970. Directed by Worthwhile Films, Charles Taylor, Wisconsin Governor's Employment and,Training Office, and Awareness Project Self Help, Larry Bandy and Inc Praxis Publications. Madison, Wis.: Praxis Publications Inc., distributor], 1995.

"Common Council Considers Ald. Vel Phillips 5th Plea for Open Housing Bill in Milwaukee," Milwaukee Star, September 23, 1967.

"Councilwoman Rips White Citizens Group." Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) (1960-1973), Jun 12, 1962. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/493898201?accountid=465.

Garland, Hazel. "Vel Phillips is quite a Girl, Tells Off Biased Southerner." New Pittsburgh Courier (1959-1965), Jul 23, 1960. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/371592605?accountid=465.

Miner, Barbara . "Valiant Lady Vel." MilwaukeeMag.Com. www.milwaukeemag.com/article/242011-ValiantLadyVel (accessed December 10, 2012).

"Mrs. Phillips Plays it Tough and Wins." New York Amsterdam News (1962-1993), May 18, 1968. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/226636780?accountid=465.

C,.B. Powell. "Mrs. Phillips Cites the Kennedy Record." New York Amsterdam News (1943-1961), Jul 23, 1960. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/225483552?accountid=465.

Ottley, Roi. "Negro Woman on Milwaukee City Council." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Sep 06, 1958. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/182184886?accountid=465.

Special to The New,York Times. "Milwaukee City Council Passes Stiff Open-Housing Ordinance." New York Times (1923-Current File), May 01, 1968. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/118277754?accountid=465.

"Vel Phillips has Scored Many Firsts in Her Career(2)." The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967), Jun 28, 1958. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/492974548?accountid=465.

"Vel Phillips Speaks Out Against 'Freedom Rides'." The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967), May 05, 1962. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/493000893?accountid=465.

Washington, Betty. "Milwaukee Councilwoman Fights for Housing Law." Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) (1960-1973), Sep 14, 1967. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/494325911?accountid=465.

WTMJ-TV. "UWM Libraries Digital Collections : Item Viewer." UWM Libraries Digital Collections : Home. http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/march&CISOPTR=720&CISOBOX=1&REC=11 (accessed December 14, 2012).



[1] Garland, Hazel. "Vel Phillips is quite a Girl, Tells Off Biased Southerner." New Pittsburgh Courier (1959-1965), Jul 23, 1960. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/371592605?accountid=465.
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] "Vel Phillips has Scored Many Firsts in Her Career(2)." The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967), Jun 28, 1958. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/492974548?accountid=465.
[5] "Black Nouveau | Program | #1827 - YouTube." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2nOypBtzrE (accessed December 14, 2012).
[6] Councilwoman Rips White Citizens Group." Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) (1960-1973), Jun 12, 1962. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/493898201?accountid=465.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Special to The New,York Times. "Milwaukee City Council Passes Stiff Open-Housing Ordinance." New York Times (1923-Current File), May 01, 1968. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/118277754?accountid=465.
[9] OTTLEY, ROI. "Negro Woman on Milwaukee City Council." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Sep 06, 1958. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/182184886?accountid=465.
[10] Special to The New,York Times. "Milwaukee City Council Passes Stiff Open-Housing Ordinance." New York Times (1923-Current File), May 01, 1968. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/118277754?accountid=465.
[11] Garland, Hazel. "Vel Phillips is quite a Girl, Tells Off Biased Southerner." New Pittsburgh Courier (1959-1965), Jul 23, 1960. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/371592605?accountid=465.
[12] "Vel Phillips Speaks Out Against 'Freedom Rides'." The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967), May 05, 1962. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/493000893?accountid=465.
[13] WTMJ-TV. "UWM Libraries Digital Collections : Item Viewer." UWM Libraries Digital Collections : Home. http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/march&CISOPTR=720&CISOBOX=1&REC=11 (accessed December 14, 2012).
[14] Ibid.
[15] BETTY WASHINGTON Daily Defender,Staff Writer. "Milwaukee Councilwoman Fights for Housing Law." Chicago Daily Defender (Daily Edition) (1960-1973), Sep 14, 1967. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/494325911?accountid=465.
[16] Miner, Barbara . "Valiant Lady Vel." MilwaukeeMag.Com. www.milwaukeemag.com/article/242011-ValiantLadyVel (accessed December 10, 2012).
[17] Ibid.

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