Fun facts about roy wilkins.
Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins spent more than four decades at NAACP and held the top job at the civil rights organization for 22 years, beginning in 1955.
A young journalist
Born in St.
Louis, Missouri in 1901, Wilkins grew up with his aunt and uncle in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Roy wilkins childhood
While attending the University of Minnesota, he worked as a journalist at the Minnesota Daily and the St. Paul Appeal, a Black newspaper where he served as editor. After graduating with a degree in sociology, he became the editor of the Kansas City Call in 1923, a weekly newspaper serving the Black community of Kansas City, Missouri.
His journalism turned into activism as he challenged Jim Crow laws, and in 1931, he moved to New York City to become the assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White.
Three years later, he replaced W.E.B. Du Bois as editor of The Crisis, NAACP's official magazine.
Joining the civil rights movement
In 1950, Wilkins cofounded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a