Frank Wilkinson: Rich Life on Behalf of Poor (LATimes - at last)

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-frank29jan29,0,5662529.story?coll=la-headlines-california

National civil liberties leader Frank Wilkinson, who died Jan. 2, was remembered Saturday as "the Johnny Appleseed of the 1st Amendment" at a packed memorial service at Holman United Methodist Church.

Wilkinson "sowed seeds of liberty in every city of the country," said Kit Gage, director of the First Amendment Foundation, one of several groups her former colleague launched in his 91 years. Well into his 80s, Wilkinson gave nearly 200 speeches a year on 1st Amendment issues, fair housing and civil rights.

The son of a physician, he was born in Michigan and came to Los Angeles when he was 11. He graduated from Beverly Hills High School and UCLA and considered becoming a Methodist minister. But after seeing extreme poverty during a trip around the world, Wilkinson became an advocate of affordable, high-quality public housing.

A member of the Communist Party for more than 30 years, Wilkinson lost his job at the Los Angeles Housing Authority in the McCarthy era after refusing to answer questions about his political affiliations during a city hearing concerning housing in Chavez Ravine. But he continued his anti-poverty work and was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1958.