The Man Behind the Name

The Man Behind the Name. Who was Phillips? What is Phillips?. , The neighborhood is edged by Interstate 94 on the north, Interstate 35W on the west, Lake Street on the south, and Hiawatha, Cedar Avenue, and railroad tracks on the east., The neighborhood's name honors Wendell Phillips, a leading abolitionist. Born in 1811, he came from a distinguished upper-class family, his father served as Boston's first mayor. Like his father, Wendell studied at Harvard University and went into law, and he seemed destined for an uncontroversial career. His growing concern over slavery, however, turned him into an activist. He was encouraged by his wife, Ann Terry Greene, who was a member of the Boston Female Antislavery Society. His first public oration against slavery in 1837 was witnessed by fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison: "The youthful, accomplished and gifted Wendell Phillips electrified the mighty assembly. It was sublime, irresistible, annihilating." Phillips continued to crusade after the Civil War for the rights of the newly freed slaves., The Minneapolis neighborhood that took his name has a long tradition of diversity. One prominent resident was attorney J. Francis Wheaton, elected as Minnesota's first African American legislator in 1899. Prosperous businessmen lived here too, making Park Avenue a "Gold Coast" in the late 1800s. The mansion of Swedish newspaper publisher Swan Turnblad is now the American Swedish Institute. Jewish merchants along Franklin Avenue catered to the Jewish community around Bloomington Avenue. This area later attracted American Indians, leading to the development of the Minneapolis American Indian Center and the Little Earth of United Tribes Housing project., Students in front of Phillips Junior High School, 2200 Thirteenth Avenue South, 1958