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| http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/129wilkins.htm |
It was 1920 and Roy Wilkins was a college student when he felt the greatest racial discrimination in his life. Three black men were wrongly accused of raping a white woman, and were lynched by a mob. Roy Wilkins recounted,
I read the stories [about the lynchings] in the newspapers and put them down feeling sick, scared, and angry all at the same time. This was Minnesota not Mississippi, but every Negro in the [circus] had been suspect in the eyes of the police and guilty in the eyes of the mob....The mob was in touch with something—an awful hatred I had never seen or felt before. For the first time in my life I understood what [W. E. B.] DuBois had been writing about. I found myself thinking of black people as a very vulnerable us—and white people as an unpredictable, violent them. American Social Leaders and Activists, "Wilkins, Roy." accessed May 30, 2012. http://www.fofweb.com/.
This incident sparked the active involvement of Roy Wilkins in great efforts to bring changes to the society of America. In 1923, Roy Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology. His knowledge in the field of sociology later helped him to be one of the most significant leaders in the civil rights struggles of African-Americans.
After graduating from his college, he worked for several African-American newspapers, as journalist and editor. W.E.B. DuBois eventually noticed Wilkins, who was well-known for his articulate speeches and his enthusiastic involvement in the civil rights movement, and encouraged him to join the NAACP. Wilkins joined the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States. Wilkins was nominated as executive secretary in 1955 and later was promoted as executive director in 1964.
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