Velma (Bell) Hamilton was born in 1910 in Pontotoc, Mississippi, and moved to Beloit soon after her birth where she later attended Beloit College, graduating in 1930. She received her M.A. in 1933 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her master's thesis being an examination of the migration of African-Americans from the South to the Beloit area. In the 1950s, Velma was an educator with the University of Wisconsin Extension School, the United States Armed Forces Institute, and the Madison Area Technical College.
