African Americans

1975 Photograph of Roy Wilkins, Samuel Richardson, Governor Wendell Anderson and an unidentified man.

Roy Wilkins (second from left) with Samuel Richardson (left), unidentified man, and Governor Wendell R. Anderson (far right)

Roy Wilkins (second from left) with Samuel Richardson (left), unidentified man, and Governor Wendell R. Anderson (far right), 1975.

Photograph of Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, and Thurgood Marshall

Roy Wilkins (center) with Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall

Roy Wilkins (center) with Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall, c. 1959

Portrait photograph of Roy Wilkins

Roy Wilkins

Roy Wilkins, c. 1955

Wilkins, Roy (1901-1981)

Roy Wilkins, who spent his formative years in the Twin Cities, led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1949 to 1977. During those years, the NAACP helped achieve the greatest civil rights advancements in U.S. history. Wilkins favored new laws and legal challenges as the best ways for blacks to gain civil rights.

Godfrey, Joseph (c.1830-1909)

The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 was a turning point in Minnesota history. Joseph Godfrey, an escaped slave, joined the Dakota in their fight against white settlers that summer and fall, one of only two African Americans to do so.

William Bonga, Ojibway.

William Bonga, Ojibway.

William Bonga, George's son, c. 1900.

Stephen Bonga

Stephen Bonga

Stephen Bonga, George's brother, c. 1880.

George Bonga

George Bonga

George Bonga, c. 1870.

Bonga, George (1802-1880)

Fur trader and translator, George Bonga was one of the first black men born in Minnesota. His mother was Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), as were both of his wives. Through these relationships, Bonga was part of the mixed racial and cultural groups that connected trading companies to American Indians in the Minnesota territory and guided white immigrants and traders through the region. Comfortable in many worlds, Bonga often worked as an advocate for the Anishinaabe in their dealings with trading companies and the Minnesota government.

Cooke, Marvel Jackson (1901-2000)

Marvel Cooke was a pioneering African American female journalist and political activist. Cooke's groundbreaking career was spent in a world where she was often the only female African American. Talking about her work for the white-owned newspaper, The Compass , she told biographer Kay Mills in 1988, ''there were no black workers there and no women."

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