Councilwoman Vel Phillips speaks at a Milwaukee Common Council meeting in 1970. (Archival image from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project) Editor’s note: This is one in a series of 15 pieces about the Milwaukee Open Housing marches, which took place 50 years ago beginning on Aug. 28, 1967. Watch for the stories every Monday and Thursday. Deborah Campbell Tatum was just a young girl when the civil rights movement began to sweep the nation, but her involvement in the fight for open housing in Milwaukee changed her life forever. “When the open housing march[es] started, it was the first time I saw [African-Americans] come together as a race of people, and just people…coming together. It was all colors,” said Tatum. “Being a child, to see that was lovely. I never missed a day. That was the beginning of my political life.” Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! In Milwaukee, Velvalea “Vel” Phillips was setting an example for African-American women and girls with political aspirations. The first woman to graduate from University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, the first woman and African-American member of Milwaukee’s Common Council, the first woman and African-American elected secretary of state in Wisconsin: Phillips demonstrated to all what African-American women could accomplish in politics, and set the stage for black women to leverage political power. Phillips first proposed an open housing ordinance in 1962. Despite several attempts, the council failed to pass the ordinance for the next six years. It took the 1968 Fair Housing Act, passed by Congress a week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for the Common Council to approve a fair housing law in Milwaukee. As Phillips was fighting for civil rights as a member of the council, the Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council, founded in 1947, provided leadership opportunities for young women that were absent in other aspects of their lives, according to Dr. Erica Metcalfe, a Milwaukee native and assistant professor at Texas Southern University, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It was under the leadership of the Youth Council’s first president, Susan Warren, that the chapter was nationally recognized for activism in the 1950s. Other young women also served as Youth Council presidents. “Girls were empowered by the leadership skills that membership within the Youth Council afforded them,” Metcalfe wrote. Alberta Harris Moore, a high school student at the time, played a fundamental role in the open housing movement and facilitated the collaboration between the Rev. James Groppi and the Youth Council, which she served as president. Moore first met Groppi as a student at St. Boniface Church School. “Father Groppi was so in tune to how I envisioned the Youth Council to be — an organization involved in direct action,” said Moore, now 71. In 1965, the group’s advisor was thinking of leaving. “I asked if he [Groppi] would consider being our advisor. At first he said no, but I persisted. He decided he’d come on temporarily until we found another advisor. He never left.” Father James Groppi and Vel Phillips stand atop the hood of a bus, surrounded by members of the Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council. (Archival image from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project) Groppi encouraged Moore’s cousin, Vada Harris, to become involved in the movement. One of the first African-American students to attend the predominately white Riverside University High School, Harris, now deceased, led a “textbook turn-in” protest in which she and other students returned their history books and walked out of class to challenge the exclusion of African and African-American history. In 1966, however, the dynamic shifted. The Commandos, formed partially in response to threats and bombings, emerged as a new male security unit intent on protecting protesters from violence and representing African-American men in a distinguished light. “When the marches reached the highest numbers, a lot of new [men] joined. [Many] were veterans who had finished their enlistment period,” said Margaret Rozga, a former member of the Youth Council who later married Groppi. She added that at that point the direct action committee, which was responsible for developing strategy and taking part in protests, took a more central role. “Within that group was the Commandos, [which] was all male,” Rozga said. Still, Rozga said, the environment was friendly and comfortable for female members. “Other voices were still respected,” she added.