Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson (August 16, 1914 – January 2, 2006) was an American civil liberties activist who served as Executive Director of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation and the First Amendment Foundation (both predecessors to the Defending Dissent Foundation).

Born in Charlevoix, Michigan, Frank was one of four children. In 1917, Frank's father, Dr. Alan Wilkinson, enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Arizona. Dr. Wilkinson was a devout Methodist, so much so that Wilkinson recalled, "every morning of my life we had Bible reading and prayers at the breakfast table. It wasn't just saying grace. We got down on our knees and put our heads on the chairs."

In 1925 the family moved to Hollywood, California and on to Beverly Hills two years later. Although they weren't rich, the family was comfortable and Frank told his biographer "I was not touched by the Depression." Wilkinson attended Beverly Hills High School.

Frank graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1936,

After graduation, Frank traveled in the U.S., North Africa and the Middle East. His desire to see Hull House, a settlement house founded by Jane Addams, the pacifist anarchist head who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, took him to Chicago. While there, he visited Maxwell Street which he says was "one of the real turning points of my life because I had never seen poverty before." He got another glimpse of poverty when he visited the Bowery in New York City and stayed at a flop house.

He encountered more poverty and degradation in his travels through North Africa and the Middle East. His experiences there caused him to re-evaluate his faith. He wrote to his friend, U.C. Berkeley President Robert Gordon Sproul: "Dear Bob, There is no God..." But his commitment to humanity and to building a better world was still there, he just had a new perspective on it.

When he came home, he informed his family of his new-found atheism and zeal for social reform. The FBI was so interested in his transformation, they opened up a file on him. The first entry notes that he had been seen in the company of "known Communists." The FBI continued to monitor Wilkinson's activities for the next four decades.

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