Frank Wilkinson

In 1917, Frank's father, Dr. Alan Wilkinson, enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Arizona.

Berkeley president Robert Gordon Sproul: "Dear Bob, There is no God..."[5] But his commitment to humanity and to building a better world remained, though with a new perspective.

Wilkinson was caught up in the McCarthy Era when he defended a major public housing project, Elysian Park Heights, for the Chávez Ravine section of Los Angeles.

Many residents of this area had already been displaced due to the impending construction of a new public housing project to be designed by Richard Neutra.

In August, 1952, Wilkinson was assigned by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles to testify as an expert witness in the condemnation proceedings against a group of property owners in the Chavez Ravine, which was a predominantly Hispanic community and impoverished.

He had an FBI dossier on Wilkinson and other Housing Authority employees that had been given to him by LA Police Chief William Parker.

As the investigation of the Housing Authority continued, the program collapsed, and Chavez Ravine became Dodger Stadium.

Wilkinson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) twice, once in 1956 in Los Angeles, and again in 1958 in Atlanta.

On May 1, 1961, Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden entered federal prison, with each man serving a nine month sentence.

After his release, Wilkinson continued his campaign to abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, traveling the country, speaking at campuses and meetings to build opposition to it.

In 1986, with the help of attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, Wilkinson sued for his FBI file.

Eventually the FBI was forced to release 132,000 pages of files which included Wilkinson's reports on his speaking engagements and travel, as well as information about an apparent plot to assassinate him.

Wilkinson's story was featured in a special edition of Life (magazine) in 1991, celebrating the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights.

Frank Wilkinson addressing crowd on March 2, 1966 from property within the town of Chapel Hill over the stone wall (property line) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after the university's refusal to allow Herbert Aptheker and himself to speak to students that invited them to campus.