# Josephine Wilkins

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American activist

Josephine Wilkins Wilkins in 1934 Born Josephine Mathewson Wilkins September 30, 1893 Athens, Georgia, U.S. Died May 30, 1977(1977-05-30) (aged 83) Port Charlotte, Florida, U.S.

**Josephine Mathewson Wilkins** (September 30, 1893 – May 30, 1977) was an American social activist, president of the Georgia State [League of Women Voters](/source/League_of_Women_Voters). She is a 2022 inductee into the [Georgia Women of Achievement](/source/Georgia_Women_of_Achievement).[1]

## Early life

Josephine Mathewson Wilkins was born in [Athens, Georgia](/source/Athens%2C_Georgia), the daughter of banker John Julian Wilkins Sr., and Jessie Stanley Horton Wilkins.[2][3] She attended school at the [Lucy Cobb Institute](/source/Lucy_Cobb_Institute) in Athens, and earned a bachelor's degree at the [University of Georgia](/source/University_of_Georgia). She pursued further studies in the arts in New York City, where she took courses at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University).[4]

Facts versus folklore : an adventure in democracy / Josephine Wilkins

## Career

Wilkins began working for the Georgia Children's Code Commission on [child labor](/source/Child_labour) legislation in 1925.[4] When the child labor bill passed, [Franklin Roosevelt](/source/Franklin_D._Roosevelt) wired his congratulations to Wilkins personally.[5] In 1933, she was part of a citizens' committee to address police brutality towards Black residents of [Atlanta](/source/Atlanta).[6] She was elected president of the Georgia State League of Women Voters in 1934. "Such an organization takes on new meaning in this period of confusion," she declared in her acceptance speech, "when the tendency to dictatorship is more the rule than the exception, and we in the United States seek to prove that our form of self-government is flexible enough to effect such changes as we may want through the orderly process of the ballot".[7] She retired from the League presidency in 1940.[8]

Wilkins worked with Governor [Ellis Arnall](/source/Ellis_Arnall) with a grant from the [Rosenwald Fund](/source/Rosenwald_Fund), to create the Georgia Citizens Fact-Finding Movement, an umbrella organization for reform efforts. She worked on anti-lynching laws with [Jessie Daniel Ames](/source/Jessie_Daniel_Ames),[9] and helped to found and lead the [Southern Regional Council](/source/Southern_Regional_Council) in the 1940s.[2][10]

From 1954 until her death, she was president of Wilkins, Inc., overseeing her family's business interests and philanthropic work. In 1973, she gave an oral history interview to [Jacquelyn Dowd Hall](/source/Jacquelyn_Dowd_Hall) for the Southern Oral History Program Collection at the [University of North Carolina](/source/University_of_North_Carolina).[4]

## Personal life

Wilkins died in [Port Charlotte, Florida](/source/Port_Charlotte%2C_Florida) in 1977, aged 83 years.[2] Her papers were donated to [Emory University](/source/Emory_University) by her nephews in 1978.[11]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-GaWomen2022_1-0)** ["Wesleyan College to Host 2022 Georgia Women of Achievement Induction Ceremony"](http://middlegeorgiaceo.com/news/2022/02/wesleyan-college-host-2022-georgia-women-achievement-induction-ceremony/). Middle Georgia CEO. February 11, 2022. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20220213220535/http://middlegeorgiaceo.com/news/2022/02/wesleyan-college-host-2022-georgia-women-achievement-induction-ceremony/) from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2022.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_2-2) ["Josephine Wilkins, Civic Leader, Dies"](https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/02/archives/long-island-opinion-josephine-wilkins-civic-leader-dies-founder-of.html). *The New York Times*. 1977-06-02. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0362-4331](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2020-11-15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Doster, Emily Jean; Doster, Gary L. (2011). [*Athens*](https://books.google.com/books?id=cQaMPnfjoiQC&q=John+Julian+Wilkins&pg=PA91). Arcadia Publishing. p. 91. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7385-8792-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7385-8792-9).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:1_4-2) ["Josephine Wilkins and Jacquelyn Hall, conducted by Oral History Interview with Josephine Wilkins, 1972. Interview G-0063. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)"](https://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0063/menu.html). *Documenting the American South*. Retrieved 2020-11-15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["President Pleased by Child Labor Bill"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63337358/president-pleased-by-child-labor-bill/). *The Atlanta Constitution*. 1937-03-14. p. 22. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Citizens' Group Seeks to Aid Negroes' Plight"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56883166/the-atlanta-constitution/). *The Atlanta Constitution*. 1933-09-30. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-11-16 – via Newspapers.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Miss Josephine Wilkins Elected President of State Women Voters"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62699502/the-atlanta-constitution/). *The Atlanta Constitution*. 1934-11-01. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-11-15 – via Newspapers.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Mrs. Scanling Named to Head Women Voters"](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63190605/the-atlanta-constitution/). *The Atlanta Constitution*. 1940-11-10. p. 48. Retrieved 2020-11-16 – via Newspapers.com.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd (1993). [*Revolt Against Chivalry: Jessie Daniel Ames and the Women's Campaign Against Lynching*](https://books.google.com/books?id=KqgUh-TxVjoC&q=Josephine+Wilkins&pg=PA287). Columbia University Press. pp. 287–288. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-231-08283-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-231-08283-9).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Kytle, Calvin; Mackay, James Armstrong (1998). [*Who Runs Georgia?*](https://books.google.com/books?id=vLT9D9SkceUC&q=Josephine+Wilkins&pg=PR19). University of Georgia Press. pp. xix. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8203-2075-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8203-2075-5).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Josephine Mathewson Wilkins papers, 1920-1977"](https://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/wilkins580/). *Emory University Libraries*. 2006-10-28. Retrieved 2020-11-15.

## External links

- ["Letter, 1944 July 27: From Josephine Wilkins of Citizen's Fact-Finding Movement"](https://archivesspace.valdosta.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/48155), Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections.

- [A 1944 photograph of Josephine Wilkins](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/administrator-josephine-wilkins-citizens-fact-finding-news-photo/50491526)[*[permanent dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*], in [Getty Images](/source/Getty_Images).

v t e Georgia Women of Achievement 1990s 1992 Martha Berry Lucy Craft Laney Juliette Gordon Low Flannery O'Connor 1993 Dicksie Bradley Bandy Mary Musgrove Cassandra Pickett Durham Viola Ross Napier Ma Rainey 1994 Julia Flisch Carson McCullers Margaret Mitchell Ruth Hartley Mosley Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman 1995 Selena Sloan Butler Anna Colquitt Hunter Hazel Jane Raines 1996 Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson Nellie Peters Black Ellen Craft Corra Harris Lugenia Burns Hope 1997 Rebecca Latimer Felton Mary Ann Harris Gay Nancy Hart Lucy Barrow McIntire 1998 Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Julia Collier Harris Rhoda Kaufman Carrie Steele Logan 1999 Moina Michael Lillian Smith 2000s 2000 Sallie Ellis Davis Laura Askew Haygood Ellen Axson Wilson 2001 Julia L. Coleman Catherine Evans Whitener 2002 Wessie Gertrude Connell Lula Dobbs McEachern Alice Harrell Strickland 2003 Madeleine Kiker Anthony Helena Maud Brown Cobb Julia Lester Dillon Leila Ross Wilburn 2004 Mathilda Beasley Louise Frederick Hays Helen Dortch Longstreet Sarah McLendon Murphy Emily Barnelia Woodward 2005 Alice Woodby McKane Nina Anderson Pape Jeannette Rankin 2006 Eliza Frances Andrews Grace Towns Hamilton Sarah Porter Hillhouse 2007 Margaret O. Bynum Edith Lenora Foster Helen Douglas Mankin Sara Branham Matthews 2008 Elfrida De Renne Barrow Amilee Chastain Graves Susan Dowdell Myrick 2009 Caroline Pafford Miller Jane Hurt Yarn Harriet Powers 2010s 2010 Mary Ann Lipscomb Celestine Sibley Madrid Williams 2011 Lillian Gordy Carter Mary Francis Hill Coley May duBignon Stiles Howard 2012 Sarah Randolph Bailey Beulah Rucker Oliver Ethel Harpst 2013 Lollie Belle Wylie Mary Gregory Jewett Henrietta Stanley Dull 2014 Rebecca Stiles Taylor Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas Bazoline Estelle Usher 2015 Allie Carroll Hart Frances Freeborn Pauley Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff 2016 Sarah Harper Heard Ellamae Ellis League Katie Hall Underwood 2017 Carolyn Mackenzie Carter Clermont Huger Lee Lucile Nix 2018 Ludie Clay Andrews Susie Baker King Taylor Mamie George S. Williams 2019 Leila Denmark Mary Dorothy Lyndon 2020s 2020 Clarice Cross Bagwell Katharine DuPre Lumpkin Juanita Marsh Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright 2021 Ruby M. Anderson Mary G. Bryan Laura Pope Forester Allie Murray Smith 2022 Lizzie Lurline Collier Josephine Fields Sanders Hedy West Josephine Wilkins 2023 Phyllis Jenkins Barrow Alice Coachman Luck Flanders Gambrell Dorothy Rogers Tilly 2024 Beatrice Hirsch Haas Adella Hunt Logan Valerie Murphey Elizabeth "Bessie" Tift 2025 Jessye Norman Alma Thomas

[Portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Portals):
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