Noted: List includes Vel Phillips: A pioneer in civil and human rights in Milwaukee, Phillips’ career was full of firsts. She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1951; in 1956, she became the first woman and first African-American to sit on Milwaukee’s City Council; she was the first female judge in Milwaukee County and the first African-American judge in Wisconsin; and from 1979 to 1983, she was the first female and nonwhite secretary of state in Wisconsin. Phillips died on April 17 at 95 years old in Milwaukee.
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