SCHOOL VISIT - Valiant Vel: Vel Phillips and the fight for fairness and equality
Hayslett and Boyd's event will be a school visit only.
Fair housing advocate, civil rights champion, and civic leader Vel Phillips spent her life breaking barriers and fighting for justice for all people. As the first Black woman on the Milwaukee Common Council, Wisconsin’s first Black judge, and the first Black woman to win statewide office when she was elected secretary of state of Wisconsin, Phillips left a lasting legacy that has inspired generations.
Valiant Vel depicts Phillips’s captivating story—from her childhood experiences facing racial discrimination, to achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer, to her long career in politics. Phillips led a campaign for fair housing in Milwaukee, marching with the NAACP Youth Council and others in the face of violent opposition. In 1968, Phillips’s persistence paid off when the Milwaukee Common Council passed a fair housing ordinance.
Beautifully illustrated with historic photographs and original artwork by Milwaukee artist Aaron Boyd, Valiant Vel makes an excellent addition to young readers’ bookshelves at school and at home. With an afterword by Phillips’s son, a glossary of terms, and sources for further research, this book provides a thorough look at an activist who dedicated her life to making the world a better place.
Jerrianne Hayslett
Jerrianne Hayslett is an award-winning journalist, writer, and trial court information officer. She became interested in children’s literature when she began reading picture books—and creating them—for the little people in her life. As they grew, she volunteered in their schools. Her reading list grew, too, to middle grade and young adult books. Professionally, Jerrianne has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor and a freelance writer. Her book Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O. J. Simpson was published after she served as media liaison and court communications officer during O. J. Simpson’s criminal trial in Los Angeles. She left her native state of Virginia at age nineteen. Jerrianne has lived overseas and in several US states, including Wisconsin, which has been her home for longer than anywhere else.
Aaron Boyd
Aaron Boyd knew by age five that he wanted to be an artist. Inspired by artists inside the pages of children’s books at his local library, by age six he knew what he wanted to do with his art: make children’s books. After graduating from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Aaron practiced his craft in children’s magazines and board games before illustrating his first picture book in 1999. Since then, Aaron has illustrated dozens of books and begun writing and illustrating his own stories. Aaron illustrated The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis and the Wisconsin Historical Society Press title Brownie the War Dog.