More than 500 community leaders, politicians, lawyers, judges, professors, friends and community members attended the funeral of renowned civil rights attorney Margaret Bush Wilson today (Tues., Aug. 18) at All Saints Episcopal Church.
They came to honor the woman who was on the legal team that helped topple discriminatory housing rules, who gave back tirelessly to her community and became the first woman of color to chair the NAACP national board of directors in 1975.
Bush died last Tuesday of multiple organ failure. She was 90 years old.
“She lived 90 years at 90 miles an hour,” said her son Robert Wilson III, who also is an attorney and lives in Brazil. His mother practiced law until June of this year, he said.
Gov. Jay Nixon said Wilson was a “special figure” for Missouri and the nation. He said he met Wilson when he was Missouri’s attorney general. “As attorney general, you meet all the defense attorneys,” Nixon joked. “She was always honourable, unstoppable and unwavering in her representation of her clients and her causes.”
Attorney Kim Norwood said Wilson was an inspiration for her.
“She had such a wonderful life,” Norwood said. “This is not just local stuff. What she did in this small place changed the nation.”
After graduating from Sumner High School in 1935, Bush enrolled at Talladega College where she earned a bachelor’s in economics in 1939. She enrolled in Missouri’s newly-created Lincoln University Law School shortly afterward. The school was created in 1939 to avoid the integration of the law school at the University of Missouri- Columbia.
She became the second woman to graduate from Lincoln University School of Law in 1943 and the second African-American woman to pass the bar in Missouri.
In 1948, Wilson was part of a legal team that challenged “a restrictive covenant” that barred black home buyers from whites-only neighborhoods in St. Louis.
The effort led to the landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Shelley vs. Kraemer, which held that state courts could not constitutionally prevent the sale of homes and businesses to blacks even if the property is covered by an otherwise legal racially restrictive covenant.
In 1955, Wilson became the first African-American woman to serve as an assistant attorney general for the state of Missouri. At that time, an African-American female attorney was a rarity.
She was the first African-American woman to be elected chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors in 1975.
“Margaret Bush Wilson was the consummate NAACP leader, and her steadfast commitment to the Association was unparalleled,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Her invaluable contributions will be sorely missed, and her legacy and passion for social justice will live on through the NAACP’s efforts.”
Percy Green, who was instrumental in the 1959 Jefferson Bank protests that marked the watershed for the Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis, said Wilson often operated behind the scenes giving encouragement and legal advice. For example, she gave free legal aid to the dozen people held in contempt after the protests. “I have a lot of respect for her because she did a lot of pro bono work,” he said. “She was supportive and understood it was for the betterment of the community.”
Roslyn M. Brock, the first woman to be vice chair of the national board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Wilson understood what was necessary for the betterment of the nation. Brock is also the youngest to serve in that role.
“She proved that with dedication, hard work, qualifications and perseverance, that all goals can be achieved,” Brock said, adding that Wilson has inspired her to seek the board chairman position for the upcoming election.
Although she was never afraid of a disagreement or confrontation, she was not loud or brash, many at the funeral said. “She was an incredible motivator who was soft and gentle though she was pushing you to do something,” said Kim Norwood, who currently is a professor at Washington University.
Wilson often pushed African Americans to become attorneys and encouraged students to attend college. She gave scholarships to her undergraduate almer mater Talladega College in Alabama. One of the scholarship recipients played the saxophone at Wilson’s repasse. Rhoda Graham, 29, received a partial scholarship to attend Talladega in 2001. Graham said Wilson changed her life. “I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Graham said, adding that she plays music professionally and has traveled to Dubai and the Bahamas to play music.
Well-known St. Louis attorneys feel the same. They may not have become attorneys if it had not been for Wilson.
Attorney and former judge Wayman Smith III said Wilson “called me in her office and said ‘you need to be a lawyer.’” She told him if he graduated from law school, they could practice law together. He graduated from Howard University Law School and reminded her that she said they would work together. “She said let’s find a place and do it,” Smith said.
They eventually bought the office located at 4054 Lindell Blvd. “She has touched all of these lives and made young lawyers out of all of us,” he said.