Benjamin Hooks

CTL-E-6212 · Person · activist · 1925–2010

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07407 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6212.

Benjamin Hooks was a Memphis-born lawyer, Baptist minister, and civil-rights leader who led the NAACP as its executive director from 1977 to 1992. Born on January 31, 1925, he attended LeMoyne College, transferred to Howard University, served in the Army guarding Italian prisoners of war, graduated from Howard in 1944, and earned his law degree at DePaul University in Chicago in 1948 after no Tennessee law school would admit him. Returning to Memphis, he practiced law, joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1956. In 1965 he became the first African American to serve on Tennessee's criminal court bench. In 1972 he became the first African American member of the Federal Communications Commission. He left the FCC to lead the NAACP, and after retiring taught at Fisk University as a professor of social justice. He died on April 15, 2010, having received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

The record

• Also known as: Benjamin L. Hooks, Benjamin Lawson Hooks

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 6 — 747 Program, Wave 13; sixth Scan Tail packet at the founder’s 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (script + hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Benjamin Hooks entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). ID CTL-E-6212 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — scan string #2358 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json), banked in the Scan Tail Wave 5 reserve (Appendix E), re-screened CLEAR against the live graph at 3,910 entities by this wave. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: NAACP leader for fifteen years whose law degree was earned in Chicago at DePaul after Tennessee exclusion — a direct Black Chicago education link — and a central figure in CTL's civil-rights institution line. Vital status: DECEASED — born January 31, 1925, in Memphis, Tennessee (HistoryMakers); died April 15, 2010 (HistoryMakers). A university obituary summary in search results (not opened, not counted) places his death in Memphis. STATISTICS — NAACP executive director 1977–1992 (both opened sources agree on the span; DePaul phrases the start as asked in 1976, HistoryMakers as voted in and serving from 1977 — shown, not blended). First African American on Tennessee's criminal court, 1965, and first African American FCC member, 1972 (both sources). Presidential Medal of Freedom 2007 (DePaul University). DePaul J.D. completed 1948 (HistoryMakers). MEDIA: photo HELD (A 1970s photograph of Hooks as NAACP executive director, of the kind used in reference entries on his tenure, is a plausible candidate; no license is claimed and a file-level PHOTO-001 record is required.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6212-benjamin-hooks.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short found; near-miss: none titled for Hooks.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record’s sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short found; near-miss: none titled for Hooks.) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — member of organization
  Hooks served as executive director of the NAACP from 1977 to 1992.

Referenced by

• DePaul University College of Law — has alumnus → this record

Sources

• The HistoryMakers — Reverend Benjamin Hooks biography (accessed 2026-10-16) — Birth January 31, 1925, in Memphis; LeMoyne, Howard (graduated 1944), and DePaul J.D. 1948 in Chicago; ordination 1956; first African American on Tennessee criminal court 1965; first African American FCC member 1972; NAACP executive director 1977–1992; Fisk teaching after the NAACP; death April 15, 2010. — https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/reverend-benjamin-hooks (primary source · build store)
• DePaul University — Dr. Benjamin Hooks (Little School Under the 'L') (accessed 2026-10-16) — Memphis upbringing, DePaul law school 1946–1948 because Tennessee schools would not admit Black students, first African American on the Tennessee criminal law bench in 1965, FCC appointment 1972, NAACP leadership until 1992, ordination in 1956, and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. — https://blogs.depaul.edu/fullertonlpillars/the-pillar-murals/dr-benjamin-hooks/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6212 · Combined Graph record U-07407 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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