Internationally recognized artist unveils Vel R. Phillips memorial in downtown Milwaukee
Karyn Olivier’s sculpture “I Didn’t Do It Alone” now sits at Vel R. Phillips Plaza at the intersection of Vel R. Phillips Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue.
MILWAUKEE —
The city of Milwaukee unveiled a memorial celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights trailblazer Vel R. Phillips in downtown Milwaukee on Friday.
Karyn Olivier’s sculpture “I Didn’t Do It Alone” now sits at Vel R. Phillips Plaza at the intersection of Vel R. Phillips Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue. It features a bronze desk, a bronze chair, and six linked-arm figures representing the citizens, activists and leaders who worked with Phillips to bring about change.
“The desk and the empty chair is an invitation. Vel challenged us to get involved. She challenged all of us to stand up. She challenged all of us to do our part,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “People will walk through the plaza and have the opportunity to encounter, to interact and to engage with Vel’s story.”
Phillips was a trailblazer in Wisconsin, serving as the state’s first Black secretary of state, its first Black judge and the first Black woman elected to Milwaukee’s Common Council.