Margaret Bush Wilson (Missouri Historical Society)

Six years ago this month, Margaret Bush Wilson, the St. Louis lawyer and civil rights pioneer who died here Tuesday night at age 90, gave an extended interview to Christine Lamberson of Washington University as part of “The American Lives” cultural history project at the university’s American Culture Studies Program.

We ran across the transcript as we tried to find words to memorialize this remarkable woman. She was one of St. Louis’ first African-American female lawyers. She marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She was instrumental in the 1963 protests at Jefferson Bank that served notice on St. Louis that “The times, they are a changin’” was not just a Dylan song. She headed the national board of the NAACP for nine years and mentored dozens, if not hundreds, of young people, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In the end, her own words speak more eloquently about what she stood for than any we could summon. Here are some excerpts from that interview; you can read the entire transcript here.

“In terms of race progress and the achievements of African-Americans I think we trail a lot of other cities. And, quite frankly, I think that’s primarily because there are too many of our citizens who are still fighting the civil war. There’s a great deal of subtle, but nonetheless effective exclusion going on here — now — and it needs to stop.

“Meanwhile we’ve got a lot of people here who are, not doing well in a country that is undoubtedly the wealthiest in the world. Doesn’t make sense. Really doesn’t make sense. And I’m not going to get out on the cutting edge anymore, I’ve had my, I’ve had my day out there, but I’m looking for strong, stronger leadership. It seems to me a little too timid . . . We need some courageous leaders who are going to say, ‘This has to stop . . . .’

“You know my whole philosophy is that we do not have an aristocracy of birth and class and wealth in this country. We do have an aristocracy though and it’s the aristocracy of people who have character and competence and accomplishment. And by that standard anybody can be an American aristocrat, huh?”

“I guess what I would say to your generation, which is to me key — you have to stop teaching children to hate. I don’t know what kind of family you grew up in, but I know that some of these children are taught by their parents that they’re superior, they’re better than someone, and that’s wrong. It needs to stop. My parents didn’t teach us to hate, they taught us to overcome . . . .

“It’s got nothing to do with where you came from or who your parents were and that’s what we need to emphasize. That ought to be a good place to end this don’t you think?”