[imc-st.louis] Green Party Mourns Loss of Willie Marshall

[Fitzdon at aol.com]

Green Party of St. Louis
P.O. Box 8094, St. Louis MO  63156
314-727-8554  E-mail: fitzdon at aol.com  www.gateway-greens.org

For immediate release: July 17, 2007

Contact: Don Fitz, 314-727-8554

Green Party Mourns Loss of Willie Marshall

July 17, 2007.  St. Louis, Missouri.  "More than anyone else, Willie Marshall 
was responsible for bringing a Black perspective to the Green Party," says 
Party activist Barbara Chicherio.  Willie Marshall passed while asleep early 
July 14 after a long bout of lung and heart problems.  He was Chair of both the 
Missouri Green Party and St. Louis Green Party Central Committee. 

A military veteran and retired postal worker, Marshall was an outspoken 
critic of the war in Iraq.  He appeared on Green Time TV and spoke at Black and 
Green Wednesday programs insisting that Black people should not be wounded and 
killed in a war for oil profits.  Marshall also participated in national events 
as a member of the National Committee of the Green Party USA.

 "He often told us of his personal experiences as a victim of racism, 
especially while in the military in 1959 and 1960," remembers Chicherio.  "But there 
was never bitterness in what he said.  He always pointed out injustice and 
what needed to be done.  That's why he was so effective at changing the Green 
Party from almost all white to a group where Blacks are a majority at most 
meetings.  Willie brought an African-American perspective; he brought ideas that 
people listened to; and, he brought other Black people."  

In 2004, Marshall was elected Outreach Coordinator for the Green Party of St. 
Louis.  That year, he won 10% of the vote as Green Party candidate for Public 
Administrator.  The next year he was the Green Party nominee for Mayor and 
won 21% of the vote against Democrat Francis Slay.  That was the highest vote 
that any Green Party candidate, including Ralph Nader, has ever received in the 
City of St. Louis.  Nader was the well known 2000 Green Party Presidential 
candidate.  Marshall won over 40% of the vote in predominantly Black wards 2, 4, 
and 21.

 "People all over north St. Louis knew Willie," according to Ziah Reddick, 
Treasurer for the Green Party of St. Louis.  If you were passing out literature 
for him, someone would tell you how much they liked him because of something 
he had done to help them out.  People knew they could trust Willie Marshall."

Since 2005, Marshall worked with Greens on childhood lead poisoning 
prevention.  He went to meetings called by the Greens, Health & Environmental Justice 
and Lead Safe St. Louis.  But he was highly critical of approaches by the City 
of St. Louis, charging that it was not targeting areas where the most children 
were lead poisoned.  Marshall was one of several St. Louis residents who 
wrote letters in 2006 asking the City to document where lead poisoning money was 
spent.  During the campaign to gather signatures for an audit of the City, 
Marshall was frequently a Green Party spokesperson.

Willie Marshall founded the New Generation Solidarity Consumers Union, which 
he spoke passionately about.  Strongly influenced by struggles such as the 
Montgomery Bus Boycott, he felt such a tool should be a permanent part of 
organizing.  During a 2006 interview, he said "A consumers union can leverage 
economic sanctions to get justice."  Working for justice was Willie Marshall's life.

-30-





**************************************
 Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at 
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-stlouis/attachments/20070716/762b6a45/attachment.htm