Hooks, Benjamin Lawson (1925-2010), served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1993. He succeeded Roy Wilkins, who had served as executive director of the NAACP since 1955.
Hooks, a lawyer, banker, and minister, resigned as a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to head the NAACP. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon had appointed him to the commission. Hooks was the first black member of the Federal Communications Commission, and he worked for equal opportunities for minorities in the communications industry.
Hooks was born on Jan. 31, 1925, in Memphis. He graduated from LeMoyne-Owen College and received a law degree in 1948 from DePaul University. Hooks was appointed assistant public defender in Memphis in 1961. In 1965, he became the first black judge of the Shelby County Criminal Court in Tennessee. Hooks became a minister in 1955 and served as pastor of churches in Memphis and Detroit. In 1986, he won the Spingarn Medal , the highest honor given by the NAACP. Hooks died on April 15, 2010.
