HOOKS, BENJAMIN LAWSON
CIVIL RIGHTS advocate Benjamin Lawson Hooks is best known as the forceful executive
director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from
1977 to 1993. Before he led the NAACP, Hooks
made a virtual career out of shattering the
United States’ racial barriers. He was the first
African American ever appointed to a Tennessee
criminal court and the first African American
named to the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COM-
MISSION (FCC). Hooks has also achieved per-
sonal and professional success as an ordained
minister, a television host and producer, a sav-
ings and loan administrator, a public speaker,
and a fast-food executive.
Hooks was born January 31, 1925, in Mem-
phis. As an African American living under JIM
CROW LAWS, he experienced the daily indignities
of southern SEGREGATION. His parents, Bessie
Hooks and Robert B. Hooks, raised their seven
children with high moral and academic stan-
dards. After high school, Hooks enrolled at
LeMoyne College, in Memphis. His college
career was interrupted by WORLD WAR II. Hooks
was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and rose
to the rank of staff sergeant.
After his military service, Hooks attended
Howard University, in Washington, D.C., and
graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1944.
Hooks then traveled to Chicago to study law at
DePaul University. Although Hooks wanted to
enroll in a Tennessee law school, he could not do
so because law schools in Tennessee refused to
admit African Americans. Hooks graduated
with a doctor of laws degree from DePaul in
1948. In 1949, he moved back to Memphis and
started his own law practice. In 1952, he married
Frances Dancy, and later, they had one child,
Patricia.
During the 1950s, Hooks became active in
the growing national CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
Along with MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. , Hooks
served on the Board of Directors for the SOUTH-
ERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE.Dur-
ing this time, Hooks also became an ordained
