Year Honored: 2017
Birth: 1931-2006
Born in: Ohio
Biography
Kendall Wilson was a social activist, leader, teacher, newspaper reporter, wife, mother, and grandmother. She served as the first executive director of the Delaware chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1970 to 1982. Serving without salary, Wilson was responsible for developing the all-volunteer agency into a champion in the fight for the protection of the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. She championed the causes of the poor, the incarcerated, and those who could not afford legal representation. She also fought to improve conditions of children under the care of the state.
Wilson challenged administrators, prison officials, law enforcement, and the courts to recognize the constitutional rights of the accused, or to make them accountable for abuse or injustices. She often appeared as a witness for the accused in legal proceedings regarding sentences and sentence modifications, and while she did not advocate exonerating persons guilty of crimes, she worked to ensure that their constitutional rights were protected. With Mitchell Littleton, Executive Director of the NAACP, she convinced the Department of Corrections to allow them into prison to speak with inmates about living conditions, and individual legal issues. The warden eventually banned Wilson from the prison for her advocacy.
In 1970, Wilson intervened with her husband, Ernest S. Wilson Jr., Esq., to release 300 anti-war protestors who were arrested under Delaware’s hitch-hiking law, and then successfully advocated to have the law changed. Wilson regularly recruited and facilitated free legal representation for ACLU clients. In 1975, she stepped in when Wilmington police attempted to take a 17-year-old girl into custody for extradition to Alabama to serve as a witness in a murder trial. The girl was eventually extradited, but not before Wilson successfully persuaded officials to have matrons, not male guards, escort and supervise her.
Sonia Sloan, past ACLU board member, said “Kendall Wilson’s contribution to the development of the Delaware chapter of the Americans Civil Liberties Union was invaluable. We would not have developed as an agency but for Kendall’s efforts. She was smart, articulate, and courageous. She took on cases that challenged institutions, regulations, laws, and courts. Her sustained commitment to the agency, and her volunteerism inspired others to serve. Kendall fought long and hard for civil liberties, civil rights, child welfare and human justice for all.”
Drewry N. Fennell, Esq., past executive director of the ACLU of Delaware, said “Kendall Wilson was a key leader in establishing the tone and culture of the ACLU. Although I never met her, I felt the benefit of her hard work, especially on behalf of those in prison. In addition, she set an early example of holding the government accountable while still remaining in conversation with them. She was allowed to speak with inmates on a regular schedule so that their concerns could be addressed by the NAACP and ACLU. On prison conditions issues she was ahead of her time. Without her, the ACLU would not have had the same healthy foundation on which to grow, and I have great admiration and appreciation for the work she did.”
In 1992 News Journal reporter and columnist William Frank wrote of her, “Mrs. Wilson can chalk up dozens of victories on behalf of men, women, and youngsters whose basic rights have been ignored by prosecutors, officials in the criminal justice department, and other public officials.”
From 1965 to 1970, Wilson also chaired the state Higher Education Aid Advisory Committee, which allocated all federal aid to higher education in Delaware. Under her leadership the commission authorized the first-ever study of higher education in the state. When the Academy for Education Development released their 145-page report, she objected to the recommendation to consolidate all higher education under the University of Delaware and led a successful campaign against the adoption of that recommendation.
Recognizing her many accomplishments, in Wilson received the Delaware State Bar Association’s first Liberty Bell Award (1979), presented to a non-lawyer for promoting increased understanding of individual rights and respect for the law. Then-U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden noted, “you have made the ACLU a real resource in the lives of a lot of people in need, and you deserve more credit than any of us can give you.”
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Sources and Additional Readings
Kendall Wilson Obituary (2006) The News Journal. Legacy.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/delawareonline/name/kendall-wilson-obituary?pid=145752410.
Littleton and Jane Mitchell Papers. Manuscript and Archival Collection Finding Aids. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead%2Fmss0629.xml%3Bquery.
- Collections: 2017