President Lyndon B. Johnson bestows the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States, on civil rights activist Roy Wilkins. Wilkins was born in Mississippi but spent most of his life in St. Paul. In 1923 he graduated from the University of Minnesota, where he was the Minnesota Daily's first black reporter and editor. He served as executive director of the NAACP from 1955 to 1977. A postage stamp honoring him was issued in 2001.