Roger Wood Wilkins (January 29, 1932 – March 26, 2017) was an American lawyer, civil rights leader, professor of history, and journalist who served as the 15th United States Assistant Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969.

A member of the Democratic Party, Wilkins was mentored by Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall early in his career.

[4] Wilkins worked as a welfare lawyer in Ohio before becoming an Assistant Attorney General in President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration at age 33; in this capacity, he was one of the highest-ranking Black Americans ever to serve in the executive branch up to that time.

[5] Leaving government in 1969 at the end of the Johnson administration, he worked briefly for the Ford Foundation before joining the opinion section of The Washington Post as an editorial board member.

Wilkins was the Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia from 1988 until his retirement in 2007, becoming one of the most eminent faculty members at the incipient institution.