A photograph of Roger Wilkins with his father, Earl Wilkins, Kansas City, Missouri, ca. 1939
Attorney, civil rights activist, and historian Roger Wood Wilkins was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Earl and Helen Wilkins on March 25, 1932. His father, Earl Wilkins, was a business manager for the Kansas City Hall newspaper, and his mother was the first black president for the Young Women's Christian Association.