Thomas I. Atkins

Thomas Irving Atkins to a Pentecostal minister and a domestic worker. As a child, he overcame a bout of polio. The couple had to marry in Michigan because Indiana prohibited interracial marriage. Atkins graduated from Indiana in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1963 he earned a master's in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University. In 1969 he graduated from Harvard Law School. During the mid-1960s, he also hosted a Saturday talk show on Boston's Black radio station, WILD, where he discussed current events that affected the Black community. His co-host was Lovell Dyett, who later went on to become a talk show host on WBZ Radio.

Politics Atkins was first elected to the Boston City Council in 1967, becoming the first Black elected to the position. The day following the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Atkins convinced Mayor Kevin White not to cancel a James Brown concert that was to be held that evening at the Boston Garden and helped negotiate an agreement between White and Brown to have the concert televised by WGBH-TV. White and Atkins hoped that televising the concert would keep angry and frustrated teenagers at home and prevent the looting and rioting that was occurring in other cities. The concert has been credited with preventing riots from breaking out in Boston.

In 1971, Atkins ran for Mayor of Boston. He finished in fourth place with 11 percent of the vote.

On October 26, 1971, Atkins was appointed Secretary of Communities and Development by Governor Francis W. Sargent. He was sworn in on November 1, 1971, becoming the first African-American to serve as a state Cabinet Secretary.

On July 16, 1974, Atkins was named interim president of the Boston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was elected to a full two-year term on December 18, 1974. As a Boston's NAACP President, Atkins was a central figure during contentious battle over desegregation busing in Boston. In this capacity he was the chief counsel in organization's desegregation lawsuits in Youngstown, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Milwaukee

In 1980, he succeeded Nathaniel R. Jones as general counsel of the NAACP. In 1983, Atkins was named executive director of the NAACP by Chairperson Margaret Bush Wilson. However, the organization's board of directors sided with suspended executive director Benjamin Hooks and Hooks was reinstated. Atkins resigned as counsel in 1984 to return to private law practice.

Later life Atkins and his wife separated in 1984. They would divorce four years later.