UW-Madison's Friedrick Residence Hall became Phillips Hall in late August to honor Vel Phillips, the first African-American woman to graduate from the UW Law School.
Phillips Hall is the first building on campus to be named after an African-American woman. Several buildings on campus are named after women and only one is named after a person of color: Carson Gulley Commons.
Gulley was a chef at UW-Madison for 27 years and eventually became a national consultant, lecturer and a teacher. He was also instrumental in organizing and leading the Madison chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
""We thought this re-naming event would be a good opportunity to honor accomplished women associated with the university in a Lakeshore location,"" UW-Madison Division of University Housing spokesperson Brendon Dybdahl said in an e-mail.
Dybdahl said Phillips' graduation from the UW Law School was the beginning of ""a career of firsts"" as an African-American woman in Wisconsin.
Phillips later became the first woman and first African-American elected to Milwaukee's Common Council in 1956, and later became the first female judge in Milwaukee County and the first African-American judge in Wisconsin, in 1971.
She then made national history in 1978 as the first woman and first African-American elected to a state office, the Secretary of State of Wisconsin.
According to Dybdahl, she remains to date the highest ranking woman and the highest-ranking African-American to win a statewide office in Wisconsin.
In addition to honoring Phillips, UW-Madison is naming each of Phillips Hall's six floors after women with ties to the university. All were active in feminist and civil rights movements.
The Residence Hall's name change came after Friedrick Hall converted from a UW-Extension conference center to a residence hall in 2008, Dybdahl said.
Jacob F. Friedrick, former UW Board of Regents president, will remain honored in the UW-Extension's Lowell Center.
Phillips Hall is one of two buildings the university named in honor of a woman this summer.
Earlier in July, the university announced the newly renovated School of Human Ecology Building will be named after Nancy Johnson Nicholas.
