The Woman Yesterday

Marjorie Wilkins (1923-1992)

By Abigail Blonigen

Marjorie Kelly Wilkins was a civil rights activist and the first Black anesthetist at St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth.

Born on May 3, 1923, racial tensions were high in Duluth at the time, following the 1920 lynchings of three Black circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, Duluth’s Black population declined 16% between 1920 and 1930.

Wilkins had always dreamed of being a nurse, but opportunities for Black students were very limited at the time. In a 1975 interview for the Minnesota Black History Project, Wilkins said that the idea of becoming a nurse seemed impossible.

Instead of nursing, Wilkins went on to study machinery at a government-sponsored school after graduating from Central High School in 1941. She then moved to Seattle to work for Boeing Aircraft on defense planes.

After World War II, she returned to Duluth and decided to pursue her dream of nursing. At the time, only the University of Minnesota was openly accepting Black students, but she decided to inquire at Duluth Villa Scholastica, which was affiliated with St. Mary’s Hospital. Wilkins was denied.

In the Black History Project interview, Wilkins said she was denied entry because the school didn’t think she would be able to acclimate to the white students, despite growing up in Duluth and attending Duluth schools.

Wilkins persisted, asking the board to reconsider, and was then admitted as St. Scholastica’s first Black student. After graduation and a few years of practice, Wilkins continued her education and became an anesthetist.

Despite facing discrimination in her personal and professional life, Wilkins was a fierce community leader, and served as president of the Duluth NAACP for eight years.

According to her obituary in the Duluth News Tribune, she also served on the Mayor’s Fair Housing and Employment Practices Commission, the Community Action Board, the Advisory Board for Community Schools, the Human Relations Committee of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce, the board of directors of both United Way and the African American Education Committee, and the Duluth Public Schools Desegregation Advisory Committee, as well as various initiatives around equal housing and employment for Black citizens.