Ben Hooks: 1925-2010 :Someday We"ll All Be Free

In a forest of trees ,there are always trees that stand out from the rest. These trees are known for the regal bearing that they possess.These trees are the foundation of the ecosysytem that supplies comfort to other living creatures in the forest.For it is written when a elder dies we have a lost a tree.Recently we lost two trees with the deaths of Dr. Dorothy I.Height and Dr. Benjamin C. Hooks.

Dr. Benjamin Hooks was born in 1925 the fifth of seven children born to Robert and Bessie Hooks. Dr. Hooks received his college education from LeMoyne College in Memphis,Tennessee and furthered his education to graduate from Howard University.During World War II he suffered the humiliation of seeing Italian prisoner of war soldiers treated with more respect than he was given. Dr. Hooks made a life long vow to fight racial oppression for the remainder of his days.

After Dr.Hooks discharge from the military he enrolled in Depaul University(1948),in Chicago to study law.Dr. Hooks returned to his native Tennessee and joined Dr. Martin Luther King's SCLC.


Dr.Hooks was ordained a Baptist minister and preached at the Greater Middle Baptist Church in Memphis.



Dr. Hooks was a pioneer in southern civil rights.During the 1950"s he ran unsuccessfully for state representative in Tennessee and the judicial bench.
In 1965 Dr. Hooks was appointed by Tennessee Governor Frank Clement to be on the Shelby County Criminal Court.Dr.Hooks subsequently ran for the position and won election to the bench. Dr. Hooks became the first black judge in the South since Reconstruction. Dr. Hooks during this time was a supporter of Republican causes and was equally connected in both parties .It was through this connection that President Richard Nixon appointed him to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. Dr. Hooks served in that position from 1972-1976.

In 1976 Dr. Hooks was elected Executive Director of the NAACP,a position he held this position until 1992.During this time he presided over the NAACP as it transitioned from the civil rights tactics of its heyday to the new generation of leadership.It was during this time that Dr.Hooks and several southern black leaders and their churches was targeted by church burnings in the 1990"s. Hooks retired in 1992.President George W. Bush awarded Dr. Hooks the Medal of Freedom in 2007.



President Bush as quoted “For 15 years, Dr. Hooks was a calm yet forceful voice for fairness, opportunity, and personal responsibility.He never tired or faltered in demanding that our nation live up to its founding ideals of liberty and equality".
Dr. Hooks will be missed for those ideals that President Bush so eloquently stated and as Donny Hathaway once sung "Someday We Will All Be Free".