Local and state leaders gathered in Milwaukee Friday to honor the legacy of Vel Phillips, one of the most iconic civil rights activists in Wisconsin history. Phillips broke barriers in politics, becoming the first woman and the first Black person elected to the Milwaukee Common Council in 1956 and the first Black woman elected to the Democratic National Committee in 1958. When Phillips won her 1978 race for secretary of state, she became the first Black person to win statewide office in Wisconsin.