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Biography of Benjamin Lawson Hooks
Name: Benjamin Lawson Hooks
Birth Date: January 31, 1925
Death Date: N/A
Place of Birth: Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: activist, executive director, lawyer
Benjamin Lawson Hooks
Attorney Benjamin Lawson Hooks (born 1925) was the executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1977 to 1993, and served from 1972 to 1977 as the first African American commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. He led the historic prayer vigil in Washington DC in 1979 against the Mott anti-busing amendment which was eventually defeated in Congress.Benjamin Lawson Hooks, the fifth of seven children, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925 to Robert B. and Bessie Hooks. Hooks' family was relatively prosperous because, in 1907, his father and uncle established a successful photography business that was widely patronized by the Memphis African-American community. Because the society was so rigidly segregated along racial lines at that time, many establishments would not serve African Americans. Consequently, numerous African American-owned businesses were founded in the South to meet the needs of the African American populace. His grandmother, a musician who graduated from Berea College …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…aside our alibis."After his retirement, Hooks served as Pastor of Middle Baptist Church and president of the National Civil Rights Museum, both in Memphis. He also taught at Fisk University. In July 1998, Tennessee governor Don Sundquist asked Hooks, along with four others, to serve on a special state Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of Tennessee's election and retention of appellate court judges. In 2000, the University of Memphis established the Benjamin Hooks Institute as a place for the study of civil rights in Memphis and the United States. Hooks and his wife celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 2001. Associated Organizations Further Reading There is no full-length biography of Hooks. However, articles and biographical sketches are included in Ebony Success Library (1973); Ebony magazine (June 1975); Jet (December 1972); and Broadcasting (April 1972). See also Minnie Finch, The NAACP, Its Fight for Justice (1981) and Warren D. James, NAACP, Triumphs of a Pressure Group, 1909-1980 (1980).
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