Statue honoring Wisconsin traiblazer Vel Phillips to go up this summer (2024)

After years of planning, a statue honoring the late Vel Phillips, Wisconsin’s first woman and first African American elected to statewide office and first Black judge, is set to be erected this summer on the state Capitol grounds in Madison.

The state Capitol and Executive Residence Board, which is in charge of decorations at the Capitol, on Friday unanimously approved placing the statue at the South Hamilton Street entrance to the Capitol, up the street from the Dane County Courthouse.

Dave Endres, chair of the Vel Phillips Legacy Initiative, said the statue could be installed before the end of June.

Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, began the push for a statue of Phillips in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“This sculpture is not just a monument to my mother’s legacy; it is a beacon of hope and a catalyst for action,” Phillips’ son, Mike Phillips, said in a statement. “It stands as a powerful reminder that we all have the ability to break barriers and champion the values she lived by.”

The Vel Phillips Legacy Initiative, started by Johnson and supported by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County, raised more than $500,000 to pay for the statue, which will portray Phillips atop a polished black granite base engraved with her many accomplishments.

The statue will also include a quote from Phillips: “What have you done, today, that’s good?”

“This is my mom ... they’ve captured who she is,” Mike Phillips said while looking at photos of a clay mold of the future statue.

Phillips was the first Black woman to graduate from the UW-Madison School of Law in 1951. She was the first African American, as well as the first woman, to serve on the Milwaukee City Council and to become a Wisconsin judge. Phillips was also a leader in the civil rights movement and, in 1978, she was elected the state’s first female and first non-white secretary of state.

“The People’s House should be a reflection of the Wisconsinites we serve, and no one is more deserving than Vel Phillips,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.

“Future generations of kids will be able to look up at Vel and see a leader who looks like they do — an everlasting example of her historic legacy.”

In addition to honoring Phillips, Endres said the statue will also serve as a tribute to New York-based artist Radcliffe Bailey, who designed the statue before his death last year.

“We are pretty confident that this will be the last significant installation of public art by Mr. Bailey,” Endres said.

When completed, the statue of Phillips will join the “Forward” and Col. Hans Christian Heg statues, which were reinstalled in September after being torn down by protesters in June 2020. Heg was an abolitionist who died in a Civil War battle, and the “Forward” statue has come to represent women’s rights. The fourth corner of the Capitol grounds features a memorial to fallen law enforcement officers.