Marcia Ann Gillespie, the visionary magazine editor, professor, and activist, has died, according to her colleagues. She was 82 years old.
Born on July 10, 1944, in Rockville Centre, New York, Gillespie is perhaps best known for her work as an early leader of ESSENCE Magazine. She asked trailblazing photographer and ESSENCE co-founder Gordon Parks for a job, and before she knew it, she was being interviewed for a role at the then-fledgling magazine.
She rose to editor-in-chief at 26 years old and led the Black lifestyle magazine from 1971 to 1980. Under her leadership, ESSENCE grew into one of the most well-read women’s magazines in the country.
“Part of how I became Editor-in-Chief was that I had the audacity to think I knew what the magazine needed,” Gillespie told Black Enterprise in 2017. “I wrote out my vision for the magazine, and told them I wanted to be considered for the position.”
A perfectionist, Gillespie strove to ensure that Black men and women were properly represented at a time when mainstream media marginalized them. “I remember you made me shoot a cover seven times; I’ll never forget it. It was an anniversary issue because you wanted it to be right,” longtime editor-in-chief Susan Taylor told Marcia Ann Gillespie in the OWN documentary “Time of Essence.”
“[That] was one of my favorite covers, because it was celebrating something that I thought was really important and that was the love Black fathers had for their children,” Gillespie explained of the June 1974 cover.
In 1980, Gloria Steinem tapped Gillespie to join Ms. as a contributing writer. She later became the editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine from 1993 to 2001.
She was stunned by her appointment to lead the magazine. “It had never crossed my mind as a possibility,” she told the Baltimore Sun in 1999. “It was clear — because of the way this industry functions — that the chances of my becoming editor-in-chief, except at a Black magazine, were slim to none.”
She took Ms. to new heights by engaging a younger, more diverse audience. Gillespie, alongside Steinem, founded a corporation of women investors called Liberty Media for Women in 1998. The corporation, of which Gillespie was president, purchased Ms. for about $3 million. She helped transfer ownership of the magazine to the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms. today.
Gillespie was also a longtime friend and mentee of Maya Angelou, and is the author of the authorized biography, “Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration.”
🙏🏽Respect Marcia Ann