Frank Wilkinson

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This article is about an activist. For the cricketer, see Frank Wilkinson (cricketer).

Frank Wilkinson (August 16, 1914 – January 2, 2006) was a civil liberties activist, Executive Director Emeritus of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and Executive Director of the First Amendment Foundation.

Wilkinson attended Beverly Hills High School. He was a 1936 graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.[1]

A lifelong progressive political activist, Wilkinson was caught up in the McCarthy Era when he defended a major public housing project, Elysian Park Heights, for the Chávez Ravine section of Los Angeles. Instead, Dodger Stadium eventually occupied the site. Wilkinson, in 1952, was the assistant director of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. Critics of the plan claimed that public housing was part of a socialist plot. Wilkinson cited the First Amendment for not testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee. As a result, he was fired from his job. After a lengthy court battle (Wilkinson v. United States), Wilkinson's claim of First Amendment protect was denied, and he was sentenced to one year in jail.

After his release, Wilkinson became a leading opponent of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and in 1960 helped form the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, which evolved into the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation.[1] Because of his resistance to political repression, Wilkinson received the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty; and the American Civil Liberties Union Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award, the Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award, and the 1997 National Lawyers’ Guild Legal Worker of the Year.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lyman, Rick. "Frank Wilkinson, Defiant Figure of Red Scare, Dies at 91", The New York Times, January 4, 2006. Accessed January 19, 2008. "He attended Beverly Hills High School and then the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating in 1936."

[edit] Sources

  • Frank Wilkinson, "Revisiting the 'Mccarthy Era': Looking at Wilkinson v. United States in Light of Wilkinson v. Federal Bureau of Investigation", Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Law Review, v. 32, n.2.[2]
  • PBS: Chavez Ravine. [3]
  • "Frank Wilkinson's Legacy", The Nation

[edit] External links

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