BHS Day 28: Roy Wilkins

Hi! Welcome to the last day of this year's Black History Spotlight! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly this month passes by; just yesterday it was the end of January and we're already about to head into March. Gets me every year. Tomorrow--or sometime this weekend--I have an exciting (to me lol) post coming out to wrap up this year's series so please keep an eye on my IG account for when it goes live. It's more of a test to see how it takes off before I decide if it'll be a mainstay here, but I'm excited nonetheless. With that being said, let's get into today's entrant. From the bit I have read about him, I think it's safe to say that featuring him as a pioneer of civil rights is both controversial yet inarguable. I wanted to feature him for reasons that support both of those descriptors. He received quite a bit of pushback throughout his career for his beliefs, which shaped his approach to activism, but I still think he accomplished a lot of things that ultimately helped our message during the civil rights movement. Check out his Wikipedia; it's basically today's only source but I left some things off so that you'd look more into his story. Let's get into it!

Source

Name: Roy Ottoway Wilkins, 1901-1981

Profession: Activist, journalist

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his contributions to the civil rights movement and his desire to present another way to advocate for the Black race

Notables:

--Is widely recognized as a senior statesman of the civil rights movement for his work

--Helped organize the March on Washington, then participated in both March Against Fear and the Selma to Montgomery marches

--Co-created the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

--Served as editor of two weekly African-American newspapers, The Appeal and The Call, and later the NAACP's official publication The Crisis after W. E. B. DuBois left the organization

--Served as chairman of the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization

--Started out in the NAACP as an assistant secretary and eventually became the organization's longtime executive director

--Was criticized by non-radical left members of the civil rights movement, including one of the original founders of the NAACP, W. E. B. DuBois

--Co-created a plan that helped Blacks successfully transfer their accounts to a local Black-owned bank after denials for loans from White banks

--Was part of a collaboration smear campaign between the upper levels of the NAACP and FBI against Black entertainer Paul Robeson, whose views were seen as radical

--Graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology

--Faced pushback for his liberal, more moderate views by the militant half of the civil rights movement, who didn't agree with his stance on the military and societal integration

--Was an early critic of the more militant beliefs of the Black Power movement, which also earned him some pushback from the younger activists whose activism styles were different

--Was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal 

--Was an adviser to the War Department during World War II

--Served as the chair of the US department of the International Conference on Human Rights

--Became Director Emeritus of the NAACP after his retirement from the executive position

Further reading and resources:

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Quote of the Day:

"We Negroes want the improvements in the public school system – and among them, of course, the elimination of segregation, based upon race – the institution of the same quality education in the schools attended by our children as those attended by other children, and we want Negro teachers and we want Negro supervisors, and we want all the opportunity, but the only way our form of government and our structure of society can survive is by some common indoctrination of our citizenry, and we have found this in the public school system. And, for any reformer, black or white, zealot or not, to come along and say, 'I'll destroy it, if it doesn't do like I want it to do,' is very dangerous business, as far as I'm concerned."

-Roy Wilkins

Today's organization: The Hidden Genius Project

What does this organization provide? Mentoring and training for young Black males with an interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The organization was created with the intention of countering the disproportionate levels of unemployment Black men face as well as the low overall numbers of Black men in technology sectors. The mentors provide the training, support and resources to help young Black males find an option they may not have considered for career paths, or give them tools to start their own businesses in the future. This organization is California-based.

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See you tomorrow!