Roy Wilkins

Roy Wilkins was a Civil Rights leader from the 1930's through 1970's.  He held various executive positions in the NAACP.  If there was a strike like the Pullman Porters or a march or some kind of a Civil Rights demonstration, he was there.  Roy Wilkins was also a reporter and later Editor of various publications and if anyone was needed to testify before Congress, talk to a President or go on TV to speak about dismantling Segregation and promoting Civil Rights, he was the guy.  So, back in the 1960's if you turned on one of the many News/Discussion programs on a Sunday Morning, he'd be one of them.  One other little fact, by the 1960's, Roy Wilkins lived in the Borough of Queens.  The Borough of Queens is home to the two major airports of New York City and if you had to travel around as much as he did, it's the perfect place to live.

Now Queens in the 1960's is much more rural place than it is now.  Queens was originally populated by farms, cemeteries and golf courses but by 1960's it was a place of private homes and garden apartment complexes.  There were no big buildings like you might see today as you travel through on your way to and from the airports.  There were still a lot of empty spaces and we even had a few farms in the eastern part of the Borough.  And, the world is a different place back then.  There is no cable TV or internet, no Tik Tok, no social media.  There is no color TV.  It's all in black and white.  Now in New York City we had six channels, but other parts of the country, only had three channels or even less.  So, the number of people who are on TV are much smaller group than now.  And, you never see in real life, anyone who you see on TV.  At least not in Queens.  Maybe if you live in Manhattan, you'd see some actors or TV people on the street but I lived in Queens.

So, this is like 1966 and I'm walking up Union Turnpike one night and I'm doing that because I'm 16 years old and when you're 16, you have a lot on your mind, like playing ball and girls and school and stuff that bewilders your little 16 year old mind and I'm probably talking to myself too. And, Union Turnpike is deserted with hardly anyone walking on the street and here and there a passing car, maybe.  And, then I see this guy walking towards me and as he draws close, I see he's Roy Wilkins.

Now like I said, you don't see people who you see on TV in real life and Roy Wilkins is the first person I've ever seen, who I've seen on TV.  And, as we draw close he smiles and says.  "Good Evening."  And, I'm like really stunned because I'm 16 and I know what's going on in the world and he's famous, so at first I can't even speak.  But I manage to find my voice and we exchange pleasantries like two neighbors and then we go our separate ways.  And, I'm also struck by how wise and dignified he is.  I mean if you look at the pictures of him you can see it but up close and personal it was even more so.  He looked like what the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should look like but usually doesn't.  Or a guy who you would climb a mountain to ask about the meaning of life, would look like.  It was far more than him being older or the white hair.  It was something that went deep, soul deep, some intrinsic quality.  It was impenetrable, indominable.

Now think for a moment of all the insults and the names and the vitriol that must have been directed towards him, in his life.  Like I said he's at the forefront of every major demonstration or march that the Civil Rights movement ever had.  He didn't have to imagine someone might have said something racist, those people were right there, up close, personal and in his face.  He must have heard every racial epithet anyone could ever think of, hurled at him.  And, yet there he was in his mid 60's seeing some young kid, talking to himself and he probably remembered being 16 and talking to himself and he's kind, congenial, wise, neighborly and like I said, he had that dignity, that impenetrable, indominable dignity.

And, this brings us to an old adage and the moral of the story here which is.  You can't disrespect a man who respects himself.  And, no matter what insult or invective or trash someone tried to heap upon Roy Wilkins head, it never made a dent.

Dicens simile factum est

Pro Bono Publico