A Short Biography: From the Desk of Margaret Bush Wilson

 

Royal Vagabond Club Members with Wilson celebrating her National NAACP election, 1975

Back in 2010 University Archives acquired the personal papers of Margaret Bush Wilson (1919-2009), a prominent St. Louis attorney and civil rights leader. Her papers which are housed in more than 850 boxes contain her legal and civil rights research, professional and personal correspondence, books, awards, and other important documents spanning her career not only as an attorney but as an active member in more than fifty local and national organizations.

 

Margaret received her B.A. in Economics (1940) from Talladega College in Alabama. During her senior year she received the Juliette-Derricotte Fellow, a travel fellowship that awarded her a year-long trip around the world. After returning, she attended Lincoln University and obtained her law degree in 1943 marking her as the second black woman to practice law in Missouri. As a lawyer who specialized in housing law, Margaret and her father, James T. Bush, Sr., were part of the legal team that challenged the restrictive covenants that barred black home-buyers from certain white-only neighborhoods. Their efforts led way for the U.S. Supreme court ruling, Shelly v. Kraemer (1948), which held that racial housing covenants were unconstitutional.  In January 1975 she became the first African American female to chair the National NAACP, which placed her and her work in the national spotlight. Some of her professional experience includes:

• Washington University’s Board of Trustees (1978-2009)
• Assistant Attorney-General of Missouri (1961-1962)
• Acting Director of the St. Louis Model City Housing Agency (1968-1969)
• Member of the Missouri Council on Criminal Justice (1972-1977)
• St. Louis Lawyers for Housing (1969-1972)
• Treasurer of the NAACP National Housing Corporation (1971-1984)
• Chairwoman of the National NAACP (1975-1983)
• Advisory Committee for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1978-1981)
• Board of Directors, Monsanto Company (1977-1985)
• Chair of the Saint Louis Land Reutilization Authority (1975-1977)
• Afro-American Newspapers (1987-1992)

The collection is not available for use while we are arranging and describing the material. However,  over the course of the next year we will be sharing some of the highlights from her remarkable career and give an inside look at some of the documents and work that shaped her life. This inaugural post is our way of thanking Margaret for her tireless efforts in shaping the civil rights landscape and of celebrating what would have been her 94th birthday, on January 30th.

Image credit: Margaret Bush Wilson Papers, Series: Photographs