Goodbye to Frank Wilkinson

Frank Wilkinson, longtime Los Angeles lefty activist, has died at 91. The NY Times has his obit (via LA Observed) but the LA Times — which we'd wager, with its historical conservatism, was never a friend to Frank — does not.

Like other leftists with good intentions, Frank's actions sometimes had tragically unintended consequences. Looking at the ramshackle, underdeveloped — and idyllically remembered — Chavez Ravine, Frank, head of the city's housing authority, set in motion a plan to build thousands of units of public housing there. He was accused of being a communist, lost his job, and was jailed after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Meanwhile, Chavez Ravine captured the attention of Dodger Stadium's developers who would get it on the cheap, evicting and displacing the very people Frank had hoped to provide with decent housing.

He was one of the last two men jailed for refusing to testify at the HUAC hearings. He was a member of the Communist Party, and the FBI would follow him for 38 years, filing 132,000 surveillance documents. Is there a reason to still care about this stuff? Well, George Clooney thinks so.

Frank was a big man, and had a sense of himself holding a big place in history. In other words, he was kind of a pain in the ass. But he was also kind and geniunely dedicated to both protecting the poor and protecting free speech. He was deeply involved in the ACLU of Southern California well into the 1990s; in 1999 they gave him a lifetime achievement award.

We can see that Frank Wilkinson's life was irrevocably altered by his stubborness and conviction that he was right. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. His unwillingness to betray his principles is something we should all (including the LA Times) remember.