Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Marie Garine Delus, 2017Biographical NoteMarie Garine Delus grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. She also spent three years in Haiti as a young child after her estranged father kidnapped her and her baby sister, and left them with extended family. After returning to New York City, she was raised by her mother alongside four siblings. Following high school she joined the Marine Corps. While she was serving in Mississippi, she and her boyfriend from New York eloped. She had two sons with him before filing for divorce, Trevor "T.J." Richardson, Jr. and Thedore. In 2008, her nephew, Pierre-Paul Jean-Paul Jr. was murdered in broad daylight. By the 2020s, Delus was the Deputy Agency Chief Contracting Officer (ACCO) for the Office of the Mayor of New York City. A self-described humanitarian, she has volunteer with the American Red Cross and as a leader in Moms Demand Action. She is an original "Mom," having been a founding member of Moms Demand Action in December of 2012
Scope and ContentsMarie Garine Delus starts this life history interview talking about her family structure and the individuals in it. She describes how her parents each came from Haiti and how they met in New York. Delus discusses how, without telling her mother, her father brought her and her younger sister Sheila to Haiti when Delus was three years old. She analyzes how being left with extended family there was a traumatic experience. Effects, such as nightmares, remaining after she returned to Brooklyn. Delus describes her experiences in school, including friendships and bullying. She discusses her first love and young marriage, joining the Marine Corps in order to earn money for college, having two sons, and divorce. Throughout the interview Delus chronicles the lives of immediate and extended family and community. She muses on the successes of her siblings despite economic challenges while growing up, and she discusses relationships with lifelong friends. She speaks at length about her son T.J. Richardson, Jr. and nephew Pierre-Paul (Pipo) Jean-Paul, Jr. and their involvement with guns, music, drug dealing, and hustling lifestyle. Richardson had a gun charge at age seventeen and was grazed by a bullet in a shooting Virginia. In 2008, Jean-Paul was murdered in a hit in Queens. Delus describes the events of the murder and the trial. Delus also describes the loss of nephew Nicky, while he was serving in the Marines in Iraq, and the devastating effect on her sister in law Annette and the rest of the family. She also shares her memories of working near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Finally, Delus discusses her activism and her evolution as part of Moms Demand Action, including an analysis of being Black woman in an organization that is perceived as white. She also expounds on her loss of religion and the effect of Jean-Paul's murder on her sister and brother-and-law
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by Marie Garine Delus. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities
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