Mandela Barnes embraces the visibility and opportunity for change he'll have as Wisconsin's first

Mandela Barnes embraces the visibility and opportunity for change he'll have as Wisconsin's first black lieutenant governor


Mandela Barnes is the kind of politician Wisconsin rarely sees: He's 32, unscripted, and when he's sworn in Monday, he will be just the second African-American to be elected to a statewide office.

"On the trail, I used to say I’ll be the first openly black (candidate)," Barnes quipped — acknowledging the hurdle skin color has created for previous black candidates and the significance of his election as the state's first black lieutenant governor.

When Velvalea Phillips ran her first campaign for city council in 1956, she shortened her name to Vel to conceal her gender and wouldn't include a photo in campaign literature to shield her skin color from voters' eyes, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"I asked her, even back when I was in the Assembly, what was it like running statewide — being a black woman in the '70s — and she said, 'Nobody knew I was black,' " said Barnes.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/03/mandela-barnes-embraces-opportunity-black-lieutenant-governor/2289216002/