Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A silent clip showing civil rights activist Roy Wilkins arriving at the Fairbanks International Airport is followed by a brief audio segment of Wilkins discussing the ongoing mission of the NAACP before a Fairbanks audience in 1973. Wilkins was executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1964-1977. He was a central figure in the civil rights movement and participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965 and the March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966, among others. According to his 1981 obituary in The New York Times, Wilkins traveled extensively, visiting NAACP branches and giving lectures on civil rights causes; NAACP membership rose under Wilkin's leadership from about 25,000 in 1931 to more than 400,000 in 1977. The August 13, 1973, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that Wilkins had spoken to a gathering of 375 people at the Traveler's Inn in Fairbanks, where he denounced violence and said that the only way for Black Americans to know the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence was if they shared in the nation's wealth. Fairbanks City Councilman Joe Marshall and local NAACP President J.P. Jones were among those who greeted Wilkins upon his arrival in Fairbanks (Color/Silent/Sound/16mm film).
This is a clip from AAF-6111 of the KTVF Television collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
A silent clip showing civil rights activist Roy Wilkins arriving at the Fairbanks International Airport is followed by a brief audio segment of Wilkins discussing the ongoing mission of the NAACP before a Fairbanks audience in 1973. Wilkins was executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1964-1977. He was a central figure in the civil rights movement and participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965 and the March Against Fear in Mississippi in 1966, among others. According to his 1981 obituary in The New York Times, Wilkins traveled extensively, visiting NAACP branches and giving lectures on civil rights causes; NAACP membership rose under Wilkin's leadership from about 25,000 in 1931 to more than 400,000 in 1977. The August 13, 1973, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that Wilkins had spoken to a gathering of 375 people at the Traveler's Inn in Fairbanks, where he denounced violence and said that the only way for Black Americans to know the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence was if they shared in the nation's wealth. Fairbanks City Councilman Joe Marshall and local NAACP President J.P. Jones were among those who greeted Wilkins upon his arrival in Fairbanks (Color/Silent/Sound/16mm film).
This is a clip from AAF-6111 of the KTVF Television collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
