Nearly two decades after his death, the image of civil rights activist and University graduate Roy Wilkins will soon be traveling all over the world.
The former NAACP leader will be the 24th American honored in the long-running Black Heritage Commemorative Stamp series. The stamp will be officially issued Jan. 24 in a ceremony at Northrop Auditorium.
Wilkins grew up in St. Paul and attended the University before becoming head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1955, just as the civil rights movement was exploding around the nation.
Still, many people do not remember Wilkins like they remember other civil rights leaders, such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. The reason is simple, said visiting University assistant professor of African-American history Winston Charles McDowell: Wilkins was soft-spoken and introverted, not outwardly charismatic like others of his time.
To those who met him, Wilkins had a quiet dignity, McDowell said. Committed to the cause, he was at the NAACP’s helm at arguably its most tumultuous time — during the 1950s and 1960s civil rights movement.
And although he may not be well known nationally, the state has remembered him with buildings and monuments, including St. Paul’s Roy Wilkins Auditorium and John Ireland Boulevard memorial, the University’s Roy Wilkins residence hall and the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice.
A homegrown Minnesotan
Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Mo., on Aug. 30, 1901, but grew up in his aunt and uncle’s St. Paul home beginning in 1906, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.
At the University, he studied sociology and journalism and supported himself with odd jobs. He served as night editor of The Minnesota Daily, according to Daily records, and edited the St. Paul Appeal, a weekly African-American publication.
While in college, he joined the NAACP, founding a St. Paul chapter.
After his 1923 graduation, Wilkins joined the staff of the Kansas City Call. There he got his first look at segregation and resolved to work more closely with the NAACP.
With that determination, Wilkins left the Call as managing editor in 1931 to serve under Walter White as assistant executive secretary of the NAACP. In that position, he substantiated charges of discrimination and played a large role in ending the practice on a federally financed flood control project in Mississippi.
He was arrested in 1934 at a Washington, D.C., picket march protesting the failure of the U.S. attorney general to include lynching on the agenda of a national conference on crime.

Leadership of the NAACP
Wilkins put his journalistic talents to use again in 1934, when he succeeded civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois as editor of the NAACP’s publication, “The Crisis.”
He took the position at a critical time, McDowell explained, because some were chastising Du Bois and the NAACP for what critics said was a skewed focus on race, rather than race in the context of economics and society, and questioning its effectiveness.
Du Bois was the only black officer in the NAACP when it began in 1909 and was 66 years old when he left in 1934.
McDowell said Wilkins’ replacement of Du Bois had the same expectations of a basketball player taking famed Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan’s spot. But, he added, Wilkins did an admirable job with the shoes he had to fill and edited the publication for 15 years.
“It could have broken a lesser man,” McDowell said.
Under Wilkins’ direction, the publication’s circulation rose and it became a reflection of the organization rather than Du Bois’ voice, McDowell said.
Wilkins was named acting executive secretary, the NAACP’s highest position, in 1949, when White took a leave of absence.
At the same time, Wilkins functioned as chairman of the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, a civil rights and fair employment legislation lobbying group.
Wilkins took over leadership of the NAACP upon White’s death in 1955 — a crucial time for the organization and the movement, McDowell explained.
A new generation of African-Americans were coming of age and disliked the NAACP’s mission, which was originally an information gathering one. Many thought the mission was too conservative, McDowell explained.
During his leadership, the NAACP suffered attacks from many groups, including black power militants. But Wilkins was devoted to nonviolence and rejected violence in all its forms.
Even under intense pressure, he never wavered from his determination to work within the democratic framework of the government to achieve legal rights for African-Americans. He tried to find a middle ground between the extremes of the civil rights movement, McDowell said.
“It was one of the most tumultuous periods in our history,” he added.
Under Wilkins’ leadership, the NAACP campaigned for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
McDowell said there would not have been many of the legislative achievements of the civil rights movement without the NAACP and its lobbying efforts.
Wilkins testified before many congressional hearings, conferred with U.S. presidents and wrote extensively about civil rights for many publications.
He also played a major role in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case which legally ended segregation in schools. He also was a major organizer of the famous 1963 March on Washington.
Wilkins retired from the NAACP in 1977 and, according to Daily records, also taught at the Oregon School of Journalism for some time.
Throughout his lifetime, Wilkins was honored with many awards, including the University’s Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award, the Russwurm Award of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the NAACP’s own Spingarn Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Wilkins, who had been in declining health since his retirement in 1977, died on Sept. 8, 1981 in New York City at age 80. In Wilkins’ honor, President Reagan ordered American flags flown at half staff on all government buildings.
A stamp of his likeness
The announcement of Wilkins’ stamp came last week as the U.S. Postal Service announced “A New Century of Stamps,” its plan for commemorative stamps during 2001.
“U.S. postage stamps are a reflection of the American experience,” said Postmaster General William Henderson, and “inspiring subjects and designs continue to bring history to life.”
In January, the Postal Service will release the stamp with Wilkins’ likeness as part of the Black Heritage series, which has previously included Patricia Roberts Harris, the first black U.S. ambassador; Bessie Coleman, one of the first black aviators; Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
University President Mark Yudof asked that the release ceremony be held at Northrop Auditorium.
“The University is pleased to join the Postal Service in honoring Roy Wilkins, one of our most distinguished alumni,” he said. “A leader who advocated tirelessly for racial equality, Roy Wilkins is a role model and inspiration for all of us.”
Two hundred million self-adhesive Roy Wilkins stamps will be released in January.
Also scheduled to be released next year are stamps commemorating famed American illustrators, including: Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell; the “Peanuts” comic strip and its creator, Minnesota native Charles Schultz, who died in February; and some of baseball’s legendary playing fields, including New York’s Ebbets Field, Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
The Postal Service will also release stamps featuring TV legend Lucille Ball, Warner Bros. animated cartoon Looney Tunes, and a joint stamp with Sweden’s postal service saluting the centennial of the Nobel Prize.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story

Erin Ghere welcomes comments at [email protected]