born Aug. 30, 1901, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.
died Sept. 8, 1981, New York, N.Y.
U.S. civil-rights leader.
He was a reporter for the African American-owned Kansas City Call and later became its managing editor. He joined the staff of the NAACP (1931) and became editor (1934–49) of its official publication, The Crisis . In 1955 he began a 22-year tenure as executive director of the NAACP, which he set on a course of seeking equal rights through legal redress. He helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, and he served as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Human Rights in 1968.