e south. Once there, he posed as a regular black working man in order to gain evidence of racial discrimination. One of these trips almost ended in disaster. A white storekeeper saw his hands and said they were too soft to be those of a working man. He managed to get away before he was discovered. There are many other important highlights of a career such as Roy Wilkins. In 1934 he played a leading role in the organization and representation of the black interests during the transit strike of 1934 in Philadelphia. Also in 1934, Wilkins attacked the Harris committee plan saying that decentralization of the NAACP and absolute control of it by blacks only, (instead of the current interracial control) would give America a reason to identify them as radical. Also it would increase the racism received from white Americans. In the same idea of decentralization, he felt it might also lead to communist infiltration and/or become a tool for self serving individuals or politicians. He presided over the NAACPs 1954 efforts to end segregation of public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education. Wilkins describes this as his greatest satisfaction in of life, and as the beginning of the end for legalized segregation throughout the country. On June 17th, 1971, Wilkins criticized Nixon administrations policy on housing discrimination, calling it a timid tightrope walking act of the greatest kind. On this topic, he also said, Mr. Nixon ought to stop going around saying he does not want to enforce integration of the suburbs, because he is using the language and nomenclature of those who simply do not want Negroes in the suburbs. The story of Roy Wilkins life is an inspiring one, to say the least. It takes a special kind of person to give their life to fight for a cause they believe in as much as he believed in civil rights. He is an inspiration to all aspiring activists, and shoul...
