Civil Rights Giant & Former NAACP Leader, Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, Dies at Age 85

Civil rights crusader Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks dies Thursday after long illness. Hooks, the former leader of the NAACP, was 85 years old.

Civil rights giant Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks has died at age 85 Thursday after a long illness. Hooks, who was the champion of blacks and the poor, served as executive director of the NAACP and increased the group's stature.

Hooks became executive director of the NAACP in 1977, taking over a group that was $1 million in debt and shrunk to 200,000 members from nearly a half-million in the 1950s and 1960s. He pledged to increase enrollment and raise money for the organization.

"Black Americans are not defeated," he told Ebony magazine soon after his induction. "The civil rights movement is not dead. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop agitating, they had better think again. If anyone thinks that we are going to stop litigating, they had better close the courts. If anyone thinks that we are not going to demonstrate and protest, they had better roll up the sidewalks." Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Hooks proved that determination and tenacity in the face of seemingly insurmontable odds that you can achieve success. Even though no law school in the South would admit him, he found a way to get his education. He used the GI bill to attend DePaul University in Chicago, where he earned a law degree in 1948. He set up his own practice in his hometown of Memphis, TN.

He was a tireless fighter against social injustice and bigotry that stemmed from his own experiences both in the military and in his public life. He was inspired to become a crusader for civil rights during his stint in the military, specifically his experience of guarding Italian prisoners of war while serving overseas in the Army during World War II. The ever present reminder of a black person's so-called "place" in the grand scheme of things were "for whites only" facilities was evident in his duties -- foreign prisoners were allowed to eat in "for whites only" restaurants while he was barred from them.

We have lost a civil rights giant and he can be assured that the NAACP is in good hands with Benjamin Jealous.