Background
Wilkins, Roger Wood was born on March 25, 1932 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Son of Earl Williams and Helen Natalie (Jackson) Wilkins/Claytor.
Wilkins, Roger Wood was born on March 25, 1932 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Son of Earl Williams and Helen Natalie (Jackson) Wilkins/Claytor.
Bachelor of Arts Michigan, 1953. Bachelor of Laws, University Michigan, 1956. Honorary Doctor of Laws, Central Michigan University, 1976.
Doctor of Hebrew Literature (honorary), Wilberforce University, 1983.
Wilkins worked as a welfare lawyer in Ohio before becoming an Assistant Attorney General in President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration at age 33, one of the highest-ranking blacks ever to serve in the executive branch up to that time. Roger Wilkins was sworn in as Director of Community Relations Service on Friday 4 February 1966 in a ceremony at The White House as per page 2 of President Johnson's Diary for that day. Leaving government in 1969 at the end of the Johnson administration, he worked briefly for the Ford Foundation before joining the editorial staff of the Washington Post.
He left the Post in 1974 to work for the New York Times, followed five years later by a brief stay at the now-defunct Washington Star. In 1980 he became a radio news commentator, work he still does today for National Public Radio (NPR). Wilkins was the Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia until his retirement in 2007.
During his tenure at George Mason, Wilkins was, arguably, one of the most preeminent professors in residence at that time. Wilkins is also the publisher of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, and is the nephew of Roy Wilkins, a past executive director of the NAACP.
Trustee Pulitzer Prize Board Columbia University, New York City, 1979-1989, chairman, 1986-1987. Trustee African-American Institute, New York City, since 1979, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Washington, 1980-1989, University Düsseldorf.C., since 1989. board directors National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund, New York City, since 1970. Member Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foundations (board directors 1981-1986), SANE (board directors, executive committee 1985-1988), Free South Africa Movement (steering committee since 1984), Laboratory School Washington (board directors 1981-1985).
Married Eve Tyler, June 19, 1956 (divorced 1976). Children: Amy Tyler, David Earl. Married Patricia Ann King, February 21., 1981.
Children: Elizabeth Wood Claytor.