2009 Reading #12: Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins
Books 1-10.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews. Until about a year ago, I didn't know who Roy Wilkins was, despite the fact that I've been going to Roy Wilkins Auditorium all my life. Hell, my high school graduation was there. I'm starting to think that my public school education on local history was pretty pathetic. Others might be excused for not knowing about Wilkins, who was born in St. Louis, grew up in St. Paul, was a journalist in Kansas City, but spent the majority of his career working at the NAACP in New York. In this book Wilkins chronicles the progress of civil rights throughout his lifetime, and as a primer on that history the book is great. It traces the activities of the prominent players, notably the presidents whom the NAACP lobbied and worked with; FDR, Eisenhower, and Kennedy come out looking reluctant to engage with racial problems, while Truman and LBJ emerge as the most activist. Wilkins recounts victories but also the many disappointments and hate crimes along the way. He doesn't leave himself out; at times he seems defensive about the role of the NAACP as they come under attack from other, more militant organizations, but overall he tells his story with both passion and good humor.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews. Until about a year ago, I didn't know who Roy Wilkins was, despite the fact that I've been going to Roy Wilkins Auditorium all my life. Hell, my high school graduation was there. I'm starting to think that my public school education on local history was pretty pathetic. Others might be excused for not knowing about Wilkins, who was born in St. Louis, grew up in St. Paul, was a journalist in Kansas City, but spent the majority of his career working at the NAACP in New York. In this book Wilkins chronicles the progress of civil rights throughout his lifetime, and as a primer on that history the book is great. It traces the activities of the prominent players, notably the presidents whom the NAACP lobbied and worked with; FDR, Eisenhower, and Kennedy come out looking reluctant to engage with racial problems, while Truman and LBJ emerge as the most activist. Wilkins recounts victories but also the many disappointments and hate crimes along the way. He doesn't leave himself out; at times he seems defensive about the role of the NAACP as they come under attack from other, more militant organizations, but overall he tells his story with both passion and good humor.