On Sunday, Feb. 18, admission to the Milwaukee Art Museum will be free in honor of Vel Phillips’ 100th birthday.
Phillips, a civil rights activist who was born and raised in Milwaukee, has a series of “firsts” to her name — including the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin law school, the first Black person and woman to be elected to the Milwaukee Common Council, the first woman judge in Milwaukee and the first Black judge in Wisconsin, and the first elected secretary of state who was a person of color.