The Leadership Conference Honors the Legacy of Civil Rights Icon, Dr. Benjamin Hooks
Dr. Benjamin Hooks, former head of the NAACP and former chair of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, passed away this morning at the age of 85.
“With the death of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, the nation has lost one of its great civil and human rights leaders,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference. “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 took the reins of the NAACP in 1976 at a time of great transition for the venerable institution. He remained at the helm for 16 years and is credited with increasing membership and expanding the work of the organization.
He was also the chair of The Leadership Conference for 15 years, stepping down in 1994. He led the coalition to key legislative successes, including the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the bill that made Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a federal holiday.
“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,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference.
Dr. Hooks had a varied career in a number of fields. He was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1925 and graduated from Howard University in 1944. After a short stint in the army, he got his law degree from DePaul University School of Law and opened a private practice. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1956 and was a pioneer in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1965, he was appointed to the Tennessee Criminal Court – the first African-American judge to sit on a state trial court in the South since Reconstruction. He also produced and hosted several local television shows in Memphis and, in 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed him as the first African-American commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
Dr. Hooks was the recipient of many awards, including the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award, the civil rights community’s highest honor, in 1992, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2007.