ROY WILKINS
Oil, about 1972
Roy Wilkins, leader
of the NAACP, was born in Missouri in 1901. He was brought up
in Minnesota, where he worked his way through the University,
with a number of jobs from stockyard worker to editor. Upon his
graduation, he began to work on the Kansas City Call, a
major black newspaper. He became active in the NAACP there and
was secretary of the local city chapter. Recognized for his leadership
qualities, he became the assistant executive secretary of the
national NAACP under Walter White, and soon succeeded W. E. B.
Du Bois as editor of Crisis, the major organization publication.
He was a consultant to the War Department during the Second World
War and served with Du Bois and White as advisers at the 1945
San Francisco conference that founded the United Nations. He continued
to lecture and write, and upon the death of White in 1955, he
was appointed executive secretary of the organization he had seen
grow to 1300 branches and chapters and a quarter-million members.
During his own stewardship, the NAACP reaffirmed its profound
commitment to the democratic process and integration, condemning
separatism and violence. He served in the administration of Lyndon
Johnson as an adviser, and he was awarded the Medal of Freedom,
the nation's highest civil honor. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957,
1960, 1964, and 1965 were strongly supported by Wilkins and his
NAACP. He retired in 1977, covered with honors, and was succeeded
by Benjamin Hooks.
Visit the Roy
Wilkins memorial.
