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Click here to buy the book right now at Powell's

First
Amendment
Felon

The Story of Frank Wilkinson, His 132,000-Page FBI File, and His Epic Fight for Civil Rights and Liberties

Robert Sherrill - Nation Books
November 2005 - ISBN: 1560257792

Robert Sherrill's book on the life and times of Frank Wilkinson has been published and is now available at Powell's, Amazon, and maybe even your local bookstore! We are currently seeking to enlist folks, including those who experienced our government’s abuses of dissenters, to help us publicize and do readings of the book, and help build a bigger movement to resist further abuses.
 

 

 

Bill of Rights

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
   

Frank Wilkinson was one of the staunchest defenders of the First Amendment.

In this lively, witty biography by legendary journalist Robert Sherrill, Wilkinson comes to life as a man who went from being a college playboy to one of history's greatest and most tireless defenders of free speech in America.

Robert Sherrill covers corporate malfeasance for The Nation. He was formerly editor of the Texas Observer, chief of the Miami Herald's Washington bureau, and a reporter for the Washington Post. He has written numerous books on on politics and society.

Frank Wilkinson's life was a David-and Goliath battle against the enemies of the First Amendment. In 1961, with the help of the Supreme Court, he was railroaded and jailed at the hands of the House Un-American Committee--a body he spent years denouncing and was credited with helping abolish after its demise in 1975. One of the principal foes of J. Edgar Hoover, Wilkinson's FBI dossier was more than 130,000 pages long.
Click on Frank's picture to watch
a video interview from Social Uplift.

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Photo: SCLC Reception honoring Frank Wilkinson and Carl Braden, April 30, 1961,
the day before they went to jail for the First Amendment. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank Wilkinson,
Carl Braden and Dr. James Dombrowski. Unknown photographer, Wilkinson family collection

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Frank Wilkinson passed away January 2, 2006 at age 91.
Thank you for your thoughts about Frank, your guidance, and your activism.
Frank depended on them and so do we.

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