Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Dies
Frank Wilkinson, a longtime civil liberties activist and leader of the campaign to abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), died on this day.
Wilkinson was fired from the Los Angeles Housing Authority on October 28, 1952, because of his left-wing political associations and, unable to find work, he became a full-time political activist.
He played a major role in organizing the anti-HUAC demonstrations in San Francisco in 1960 (April 4, 1960; May 12, 1960). Called before HUAC in 1958, he refused to answer questions under the First Amendment, was cited for contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison on May 1, 1961, serving nine months.
Wilkinson has the distinction of having an FBI file of 132,000 pages, which is believed to be the largest FBI file ever on a single individual.
Read Wilkinson’s Biography: Robert Sherrill, First Amendment Felon: The Story of Frank Wilkinson, His 132,000 Page FBI File and His Epic Fight for Civil Rights and Liberties (2005)
Watch Operation Abolition, a documentary about the San Francisco HUAC Protests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVQnFpzU5h8Watch an interview with Frank Wilkinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMAE8iun_RU
Frank Wilkinson’s work lives on at the Defending Dissent Foundation: http://www.defendingdissent.org/now/