Vel Phillips Advocating Fair Housing Ordinance in Milwaukee, 1967

Vel Phillips, the first woman and first African American elected to the Common Council in Milwaukee, led the legislative battle for a city-wide fair housing ordinance. Beginning in 1962, she repeatedly introduced legislation, only to be shot down each time by a 18-1 vote from her all-white colleagues, leading to the historic open housing campaign that took place for more than 200 consecutive nights in 1967-68. Ultimately, the city relented, passing a strong ordinance in 1968. The Milwaukee open housing campaign captured national attention and played an instrumental role in passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, also know as the Fair Housing Act. In 1967-68, civil rights activists in Milwaukee, along with supporters from across the country, waged a historic campaign for open housing, which ultimately played an instrumental role in spurring passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory was one of the prominent figures who came to Milwaukee to support Fr. Groppi, the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos. This video was compiled/edited by Jasmine Alinder and Cris Siqueira using archival footage found at the UW-Milwaukee Urban Archive for the 40th anniversary celebration/conference of the historic open housing campaign in Milwaukee. For more information on the civil rights era in Milwaukee, see, Patrick D. Jones The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee (Harvard University Press, 2009)