Thomas Irving Atkins[1] (March 2, 1939 – June 27, 2008[2]) was an American attorney and politician who served as a member of the Boston City Council and General Counsel of the NAACP.
Atkins was born on March 2, 1939, in Elkhart, Indiana[3] to a Pentecostal minister and a domestic worker.
[3] That same year he married Sharon Soash, a 1960 graduate of Indiana University who served as his campaign manager when he ran for student body president.
[9] The day following the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Atkins convinced Mayor Kevin White not to cancel a James Brown concert that was to be held that evening at the Boston Garden and helped negotiate an agreement between White and Brown to have the concert televised by WGBH-TV.
White and Atkins hoped that televising the concert would keep angry and frustrated teenagers at home and prevent the looting and rioting that was occurring in other cities.
[16] On July 16, 1974, Atkins was named interim president of the Boston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
[2] In addition to serving as President of the Boston branch, Atkins was also the NAACP's chief desegregation counsel nationally.