Statement by Wade Henderson on the Death and Legacy of Benjamin Hooks

“With the death of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, the nation has lost one of its great civil and human rights leaders.  The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights extends the deepest condolences to Mrs. Francis Hooks and the Hooks family.

Dr. Hooks was a true renaissance man – a minister, lawyer, judge, businessman, television producer, and the first African-American FCC commissioner. He led the NAACP through a period of transition and expansion in the 1970s and defended the gains of the movement against retrogressive forces in the 1980s and the early 1990s.  He did the same as the beloved chair of The Leadership Conference for 15 years.

I had the distinct pleasure of working with Dr. Hooks when I was a young lawyer with the ACLU and later as the director of the NAACP’s Washington office.  Dr. Hooks was a mentor and a friend and I learned a great deal from him about the law and politics – and how to use both to effect real change for ordinary Americans. 

Dr. Hooks was an artful, skilled politician and a committed advocate for the rights of all Americans.  We in the civil and human rights community will miss him dearly.”