Books
Nonfiction that brings history and justice to life.
Jerrianne Hayslett's nonfiction brings readers behind public events and into the lives of the people who shaped them. Her books combine reporting, historical research, firsthand experience, and an enduring interest in justice and human courage.
Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Featured Book
Valiant Vel
Vel Phillips and the Fight for Fairness and Equality
- Author:
- Jerrianne Hayslett
- Illustrations:
- Aaron Boyd
- Afterword:
- Michael Phillips
- Publisher:
- Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Valiant Vel is the first published biography devoted entirely to Vel Phillips — a pioneering lawyer, elected official, judge, civil-rights leader, and tireless advocate for fair housing. Phillips broke barriers as both a Black person and a woman, but her story is more than a list of historic firsts. It is a story of research, courage, persistence, family support, and the determination to keep pressing forward when change seemed unlikely.
The book draws on extensive historical research and on Phillips's own words — from her writing, speeches, and interviews — supported by contemporaneous newspaper accounts, archival records, and family recollections. Historical photographs and original illustrations by Aaron Boyd carry readers into the neighborhoods, chambers, and marches where the story unfolded.
Written for readers of all ages — with young students and the educators who guide them especially in mind — Valiant Vel follows Phillips from a formative high-school speech contest through her service on the Milwaukee Common Council, her long fight for fair-housing legislation, and the open-housing marches led by Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council and its advisor, Catholic priest Father James Groppi of 1967 and 1968.
Why This Story Matters Today
Vel Phillips's fight for fair housing was not the work of a single afternoon. It was the work of years of research, testimony, defeats, and returns to the same chamber with the same conviction. Her example offers a durable lesson in what civic courage actually looks like — patient, persistent, undeterred by ridicule, grounded in family and community. Introducing that example to a new generation of readers is one of the reasons the book was written.
Award-Winning Book
Selected as one of The New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2025 and honored with multiple national and regional awards.
See all awards & recognition →Praise
“Hayslett details the persistence and courage that Phillips displayed in continuing to press her case.”
“The new illustrated biography … chronicles the achievements of a civil rights leader who opened many doors.”
Purchase Options
Where to find Valiant Vel
Available wherever books are sold — in hardcover from the publisher and from booksellers nationwide. Independent bookstores are always a welcome choice.
- Wisconsin Historical Society PressPublisher
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Boswell BooksMilwaukee
- Bookshop.orgSupports independents
- Google Play Books
- Indigo
- Walmart
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Also by Jerrianne
Anatomy of a Trial
Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People v. O.J. Simpson
Anatomy of a Trial takes readers behind the scenes and into the judge's chambers of one of the most closely watched criminal trials in American history. Rather than revisit the case as spectacle, Jerrianne Hayslett examines what the proceeding revealed about the pressures on a modern courthouse: the relationship between the court and the news media, the demands of a global audience, and the practical choices that shape how justice is seen as well as done.
Historical Context
The People v. O.J. Simpson unfolded before an unprecedented worldwide audience. The trial reshaped conversations about race, celebrity, evidence, and the American courtroom, and it forced court systems everywhere to rethink how they communicate with the public through the press.
Why Jerrianne Wrote It
Jerrianne served as the Los Angeles County Superior Court's first Public Information Officer, working as liaison between the court and the news media through a decade of nationally watched proceedings. That vantage — inside the courthouse but responsible for what the outside world was told — gave her a perspective on the trial that few writers could offer. Anatomy of a Trial is the book that experience made possible.
An important chapter of Jerrianne's writing career, and the foundation for the historical nonfiction that followed.
Purchase Options
Where to find Anatomy of a Trial
Published by the University of Missouri Press and available wherever books are sold.
Awards & Recognition
National and regional honors
Valiant Vel: Vel Phillips and the Fight for Fairness and Equality has received national and regional recognition for its contribution to children’s nonfiction and civil rights history, including:
Announced June 30, 2026
Wisconsin Library Association — 2026 Outstanding Children’s Books of the Year
Wisconsin Library Association
Named to the 2026 list.
Valiant Vel
Announced May 15, 2026
Silver Winner — IBPA Book Awards
Independent Book Publishers Association
38th Annual Awards, Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction (Benjamin Franklin Award™).
Valiant Vel
Announced March 5, 2026
Finalist — Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards
Foreword Reviews
Juvenile Nonfiction category (2025 awards).
Valiant Vel
2026
Great Reads from Great Places, 2026
Wisconsin Center for the Book
Selected as Wisconsin’s representative title and featured at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Valiant Vel
Announced November 20, 2025
The New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2025
The New York Public Library
Selected for the annual Best Books list.
Valiant Vel