Main Page

From DefendDissent

Welcome to the
Civil Liberties Hall of Fame

We are under construction - please be patient. Thanks
Send nominations for inclusion to Chip.Berlet@defendingdissent.org
Our Statement of Principles for inclusion on this website is being developed

1 Contents: Civil Liberties Hall of Fame
2 Civil Liberties Hall of Shame

Featured Profile: Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson, born 1914. Housing activist red-baited in the 1950s. Became leading civil liberties activist touring the country for over 30 years. Frank died January 2, 2006 at the age of 91.

Frank Wilkinson's life was a David-and Goliath battle against the enemies of the First Amendment. In 1961, with the help of the Supreme Court, he was railroaded and jailed at the hands of the House Un-American Committee--a body he spent years denouncing and was credited with helping abolish after its demise in 1975. One of the principal foes of J. Edgar Hoover, Wilkinson's FBI dossier was more than 130,000 pages long.

Photo: SCLC Reception honoring Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden, April 30, 1961, the day before they went to jail for the First Amendment. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank Wilkinson, Carl Braden and Dr. James Dombrowski. Unknown photographer, Wilkinson family collection

Contents: Civil Liberties Hall of Fame

People

Currently Posted

Louise Thompson Patterson
Chuck McDew
Frank Wilkinson, born 1914. Housing activist red-baited in the 1950s. Became leading civil liberties activist touring the country for over 30 years.