Memphis Civil Rights activist Miriam DeCosta-Willis dies at 86

Memphis Civil Rights activist and writer Miriam DeCosta-Willis died Thursday at 86. The first Black professor at then-Memphis State University was honored with a marker outside her former office a month before her death.

DeCosta-Willis died of natural causes, her daughter Erika Sugarmon said Thursday.

"We had her favorite song playing, The Girl from Ipanema," Sugarmon said, "and we were saying prayers while she passed over" at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. Sugarmon and her sister, Monique Sugarmon, were with their mother.

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Throughout her life, DeCosta-Willis found value in education and hard work, as well as giving back to the community, and instilled those values in her children. They were values she'd learned from her grandfather, Zachary Hubert, who was enslaved in Georgia, and had passed down the values from generations before him, Sugarmon explained.

"She's considered the family historian," Sugarmon said.

Some of that history is included in a collection she donated to the Memphis Public Library and Information Center. DeCosta-Willis wrote and edited a total of 15 books throughout her life, including "Notable Black Memphians" and "Black Memphis Landmarks."

She was born into a family of educators in Florence, Alabama, and went on to hold a career in academia spanning four decades.

After being denied entrance to Memphis State in 1957, Decosta-Willis became the university's first Black professor in 1966. She taught Spanish, became an advisor to the Black student association and helped organize the faculty forum. She also taught at Lemoyne-Owen College, Howard University, George Mason University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

She received her own degrees from Wellesley College and from Johns Hopkins University, where she was one of the first Black students to earn a doctorate.

Throughout her life, DeCosta-Willis fought for equal rights for Black people and for women and supported the movement for gay rights. She organized a student protest in high school and was later jailed during the Civil Rights Movement. She also participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped lead a boycott of Memphis public schools, her family said.

In 1955, she married former judge, state senator and civil rights leader Russell B. Sugarmon, who died in February 2019. Together, they had four children. In 1972, she married A.W. Willis, a civil rights lawyer and Memphis businessman who unsuccessfully ran for mayor. Also from Alabama, he died in 1988.

DeCosta-Willis loved people and loved to travel, her daughter said.

"She loves to laugh," Erika Sugarmon said. "People may not know that of her because she's so serious all the time."

DeCosta-Willis lost her sight in March 2020, Sugarmon said, and after that her health began to decline. She did not have COVID-19, she said. 

DeCosta-Willis leaves behind children Erika Sugarmon, Judge Tarik Sugarmon, Elena DeCosta-Williams and Monique Sugarmon, as well as eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Miriam DeCosta Sugarmon Scholarship Fund at the University of Memphis, supporting students pursuing education.

Due to COVID-19, the funeral will be for family members only. 

Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino