NAACP Commemorates the Life and Legacy Roger Wilkins

WHEREAS, the late Roger Wilkins from his young adult days to his last position as Chairman and Publisher for The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc., publisher of The Crisis magazine, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP"), was an active participant and national leader in the ongoing campaigns for civil rights and economic and social justice; and

WHEREAS, while as a young man, he interned at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., under the direction of Thurgood Marshall; was appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1966 as Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, the first African American to achieve this rank; and in 1973, he, along with others, earned the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for exposing the Watergate scandal that eventually forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon; and

WHEREAS, he made race and poverty central to his multifaceted career in law, journalism, and education during which he demonstrated diverse talents and notable achievements as an author, news commentator, professor, and broadcast and print journalist; and

WHEREAS, his contributions and personal sacrifices, courage and integrity, including his service as an Assistant Attorney General, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, University professor, commentator, historian, author and publisher, made him an incisive catalyst of social change; and

WHEREAS, to this end, during his Chairmanship of The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc., he did invigorate and hold high the mission of The Crisis magazine as set forth by its founding editor, W.E.B. Du Bois; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is privileged to be the beneficiary of Roger Wilkins's many contributions and is proud to pay richly deserved tribute to him as a courageous and outstanding Civil and Human Rights leader.