She Advocated For Civil Rights And Equality For All

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Perhaps one of the most admirable things Marilyn did during her career that gets very little attention is her work for civil rights. Her psychiatrist’s daughter once recounted:

“[She was] passionate about equal rights, rights for blacks, rights for the poor. She identified strongly with the workers.”

She is also often credited with helping jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald break out of the unfair racial standards in Hollywood at the time. According to Ella herself:

“I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt …it was because of her that I played the Mocambo, a very popular nightclub in the ’50s. She personally called the owner of the club, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him — and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status — that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman — a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.”

In the final interview before her untimely death in 1962, Marilyn pleaded with her interviewer to give her some dignity and truly focus on the subjects she had discussed rather than her sexuality:

“What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers. Please don’t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe.”