Mayor Barrett signs file to approve the renaming of 4th Street to "Vel R. Phillips Avenue"
MILWAUKEE -- Mayor Tom Barrett on Thursday, May 17 signed a file to approve the renaming of 4th Street to "Vel R. Phillips Avenue."
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The Milwaukee Common Council voted unanimously on May 8 to rename the stretch to honor the civil rights pioneer who died in April.
The street will be renamed from West St. Paul Avenue to West Capitol Avenue, a nearly 3.5-mile span that runs past the new Milwaukee Bucks’ arena. City staff estimate the cost to replace street signs will be $9,700.
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Vel Phillips
Phillips died on April 17 at age 94. She helped lead open housing marches in Milwaukee in the 1960s and was the first black person elected to a Wisconsin statewide office.
Phillips attended the former Garfield Elementary School on North 4th Street and was married at a church on the street. North 4th Street ran through the aldermanic district she represented, and it runs parallel to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
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Vel Phillips
Numerous community members and groups supported the proposal to rename North 4th Street. Among them: the Milwaukee Turners, Delta Sigma Theta fraternity and Phillips’ son Michael.