While working as a checker at Kroger in the late 1950s when he was a DuBourg student, Ellinger over lunch break became enamored by picketing over hiring practices at a nearby Woolworth’s.
[2] In the 1960s, Ellinger was a staffer for Young Christian Students movement, a progressive Catholic group in Chicago that worked with Martin Luther King Jr.
He organized peace and civil rights groups in Boston and Cleveland, working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
[2] He briefly was a bodyguard to Dr. King in 1966 before returning to grad school at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) where he was chapter president of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and earned a Master of Arts in history.
Ellinger was elected to the University City School Board in 1991 and served for twelve years, ten of those in leadership positions.
Maggie is a 2011 graduate of City University of New York School of Law and is a criminal defense attorney based in St. Louis.