Born: August 30, 1901, St. Louis, MO

Education: University of Minnesota School of Journalism, graduated 1923

Died: September 8, 1981, New York, NY

Called “Mr. Civil Rights,” Wilkins was recognized and respected for his steadfastness on legal strategy for equality. He rose from the Kansas City Call and NAACP to the NAACP National Office. Assistant secretary, editor of Crisis, chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and executive secretary, he favored steps that would elicit and sustain Federal support. He prioritized integration of Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) and the University of Mississippi (1962).

Wilkins guided the NAACP in the civil rights and public policy battles of the 1960s. Co-sponsor of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, he led in lobbying Congress for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His unwavering loyalty to the Kennedy–Johnson administration strained his relations with outspoken activists and black nationalists alike. He once called Black Power a backward step and criticized Martin Luther King, Jr.’ s opposition to the Vietnam War, as it weakened government enforcement of racial equality. But rising antiwar sentiment turned President Johnson against seeking reelection. Wilkins was a member of the President's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which delivered its report in 1968. It concluded that white racism, resulting in black unemployment and poverty, was the root cause of America's many race riots.