 Born Velvalea Hortense Rodgers on Milwaukee's South Side to Russell and Thelma (Payne) Rodgers, she won a national scholarship to attend Howard University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946.She returned to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School, becoming the first black woman to graduate from that school (L.L.B, 1951).She and her husband (fellow UW Law graduate Dale Phillips) became the first husband-and-wife couple to be admitted to the Wisconsin bar.