to segregation, and in direct conflict of what so many blacks were fighting for in the first place. He also condemned the idea that blacks must earn their rights. He believed they did not have too because they were human rights that came from God, and their civil rights were guaranteed to them by the constitution. Mr. Wilkins has been quoted saying many things over the span of his career. Many of them still hold true today. There can be no compromise with the evil of segregation. Also at one time he said, there are more people who want to do good than do evil. When people would ask him what he did for a living, he told them he worked for Negroes. This is because he could not make himself use the term black, to degrade a race of people to just a color. He stated that, no matter how endlessly they try to explain it, the term black power means anti-white power. And that black power meant separatism and segregation from everyone else. Again, this would be a return to the very thing that blacks were fighting to get out of. Wilkins was a shrewd political strategist. He would use the facts, the legal system, and political connections, what ever it took to gain rights for blacks. He was called one of the most articulate spokesmen of the civil rights movement. Because of this, he testified at Congressional hearings, advised with the presidents, and wrote many articles, without the use of a ghost writer (someone else writing for him). All of this helped him direct the fight for equal opportunities and rights for blacks. Wilkins declared, what the Negro wants is to establish his status as a citizen . . . segregation must go. He felt that blacks should be first class citizens, just like whites. He planned and implemented ways to end segregation altogether. One of the ways he did this was by making many trips into th...
