History of roy wilkins
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The tall, lean Minnesotan known for his steady, genteel demeanor collaborated with — and butted heads with — Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. ni Bois, and he earned his share of friends and enemies during 22 years at the helm of the NAACP at the height of the civil rights movement.
Based in New York, the national organization was regarded in its time as the most well-organized Black civil rights group in the country.
It was perhaps ironic, then, that some “Black power” advocates dismissed Roy Wilkins as too soft, bookish and legally-minded, even as he sent attorneys to bail them out of jail after street protests. As early as 1934, he also was arrested.
Despite his many television appearances, he wasn’t a soaring orator like MLK. Yet in his obituary, the New York Times described Wilkins as a chief planner of the legal battle that resulted in the groundbreaking 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing “separate but equal” public schools &mdas
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Roy Wilkins was an activist who was determined to earn rights for blacks using all legal means of protest while preaching peaceful actions. Though he was born in St. Louis, Missouri, it is Saint Paul, Minnesota, that will always have the honor of claiming Wilkins as its own. In turn, one of the most prominent figures in America’s civil rights movement was proud to call Minnesota’s state capital his home.
From 1932 to 1977, Wilkins served on the NAACP as assistant executive secretary, executive secretary and eventually, the executive director, a post he held for 22 years before retiring. During his tenure at the NAACP, he also succeeded W.E.B. DuBois as editor of Crisis Magazine, the organization’s official publication. He served as an advisor to the War Department during World War II and acted as a consultant to the American delegation at the United Nations conference in San Francisco. He also led the fight to end school segregation.
In addition to displaying his
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Wilkins, Roy (1901–1981)
Roy Wilkins, who spent his formative years in the Twin Cities, led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1949 to 1977. During those years, the NAACP helped achieve the greatest civil rights advancements in U.S. history. Wilkins favored new laws and legal challenges as the best ways for African Americans to gain civil rights.
Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. When he was five, his mother died of tuberculosis. Feeling that his father could not take care of the children alone, his aunt and uncle in St. Paul took in all three siblings.
In St. Paul Roy attended an integrated school. He later studied at the University of Minnesota (U of M), where he wrote for the Minnesota Daily. Wilkins also edited the Northwestern Bulletin, a weekly started in 1922 by a friend, and then became the editor of the St. Paul Appeal. He joined the St. Paul branch of the NAACP in 1921.
Wilkins graduated from the U of M