Jesse Ernest Wilkins Sr. (February 1, 1894 – January 19, 1959) was a U.S. lawyer,

labor leader A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

undersecretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is al ...

in the

Eisenhower administration Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...

and both the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

to be appointed to a sub-cabinet position in the United States Government and the first to attend

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

cabinet-level meetings. After a falling-out with Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, Wilkins resigned from his sub-cabinet post in 1958, but continued to serve on the U.S.

Civil Rights Commission The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (CCR) is a bipartisan, independent commission of the United States federal government, created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 during the Eisenhower administration, that is charged with the responsibility fo ...

Education and early career

Wilkins was the son of a Missouri Baptist preacher. He studied mathematics at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

and then attended the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...

in the 1920s. He was a member of its Phi Beta Kappa Society and then practiced law locally for several years.Lawrence-Lightfoot, Sara
Respect
Da Capo Press, 2000, ,

Public service

In 1954, Wilkins was appointed by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

as Undersecretary of Labor for International Labor Affairs (UL-ILA), thus becoming the first African-American to attend White House cabinet level meetings in the absence of his superior, Labor Secretary James Mitchell."To the White House"
''Time'', August 30, 1954 Wilkins had previously served the Eisenhower administration as acting chairman of the ''President's Committee on Government Contracts'' at the request of Val Washington.Mjagkij, Nina
''Organizing Black America: an encyclopedia of African American associations''
Taylor & Francis, 2001, , During his tenure with the administration he was a member of ''Equality Committee'', working with E. Frederic Morrow, Val Washington, Joseph Douglas,

James Nabrit Jr. James Madison Nabrit Jr. (September 7, 1900 – December 27, 1997) was a prominent American civil rights attorney who won several important arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, served as president of Howard University for much of the 1960s, ...

and

Samuel Pierce Samuel Riley Pierce Jr. (September 8, 1922 – October 31, 2000) was an American attorney and politician who served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from January 23, 1981 until January 20, 1989, during the administration of Ronald ...

. Still earlier he had been a member of Eisenhower's President's Committee on Governmental Employment Policy (PCGEP) board when he was with the Labor Department. In 1957, Labor Secretary Mitchell began working toward having Wilkins removed from his post, beginning by having Wilkins appointed to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, where he became the first Black member. When Wilkins did not immediately resign, Mitchell applied pressure. He pushed back against a position paper that Wilkins proposed to deliver to the 1958 meeting of the U.N.'s

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

, then announced three days before the conference that Wilkins would be excluded from the meeting. Three days after the US delegation left for Geneva without him, Wilkins had a heart attack that hospitalized him for three months. Returning to work in July, 1958, he no longer had a full-time secretary. On August 5, 1958, Wilkins met with President Eisenhower to plead for his job, saying that he needed six more months to qualify for a civil service pension. (The Civil Rights Commission job was unpaid.) Eisenhower's response was that Mitchell was entitled to replace Wilkins. On November 6, 1958, Wilkins submitted his resignation and Mitchell named his replacement: George C. Lodge, the 35-year-old son of

Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...

. After resigning from his sub-cabinet post, Wilkins continued to serve on the Civil Rights Commission until his death two months later from another heart attack. While investigating charges that Black voting rights had been violated, his work with the six-member

was hampered in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

when he was refused accommodation at the hotel where the other commission members were staying. He subsequently found a room for himself at Maxwell Air Force Base. When the commission tried to subpoena county voting records, they discovered that then-Circuit Judge George Wallace had seized the records, and was threatening to jail any commission member who would interfere in his jurisdiction.Predictable Welcome
''Time'', December 15, 1958

Other achievements

In 1953, Wilkins became the first African American to serve on the nine-member Judicial Council of the Methodist Church (which one, there are several, the United Methodist Church did not then exist and never has been the only one), when he was elected its secretary. The body is Methodism's nominal and administrative head. From 1954 to 1957, Wilkins served as U.S. representative on the governing body of the

. In 1959, Wilkins also became the first African-American president of the Judicial Council of the Methodist Church.Milestones
''Time'', February 2, 1959. He also served as the Grand Polemarch (national president) of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

Fraternity, Inc.

Personal life

Wilkins married Lucille Robinson (b. 1899 (?) - d. November 1964, Brooklyn, N.Y., aged 65), who taught school in Chicago, was secretary to the women's division of the Methodist Church, and who also practiced law with her husband for 33 years. Together they raised three sons: J. Ernest Wilkins Jr., who achieved fame as a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

nuclear scientist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

; John Robinson Wilkins, who attended

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

at the age of 14, Harvard Law School at 19, was elected to the '' Harvard Law Review'', and went on to serve President Kennedy as general counsel for the

Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 ...

(AID); and Julian B. Wilkins, who practiced general and corporate law."This Week's Census: Died - Mrs. Lucille Robinson Wilkins"
'' Jet'', December 3, 1964. Wilkins died as a result of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

in Washington, D.C., in late January 1959, at the age of 64. Wilkins is the grandfather of two notable attorneys: David B. Wilkins, a professor at the Harvard Law School, and Timothy A. Wilkins, a partner with

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (informally Freshfields, or FBD) is an international law firm headquartered in London, and a member of the Magic Circle. The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Nor ...

. In 2010 Wilkins' granddaughter, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, a Professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, wrote of her grandfather and her family more generally in her biography ''Damn Near White: An African American Family's Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success''.Wilkins, Carolyn Marie
''Damn Near White: An African American Family's Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success''
University of Missouri Press, 2010, , .

References

External links