Press release from the Green Party…

“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.