NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Frank Wilkinson, who defied the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, died Monday in Los Angeles at 91.
Donna Wilkinson, his wife of 40 years, told the New York Times Wilkinson had been ill for several months and was recovering from surgery and a fall.
In 1952, as head of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, Wilkinson spearheaded a project to replace the Mexican-American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine with thousands of public-housing units.
Real estate interests that viewed public housing as a form of socialism accused Wilkinson of being a Communist. When asked about it under oath, he declined to answer, causing a furor.
Wilkinson was fired along with four other housing officials and five schools employees. The housing project was scuttled and much of the land became the site of Dodger Stadium.
In 1958, Wilkinson and a co-worker, Carl Braden, cited for contempt, became the last men ordered to prison at HUAC's behest. Wilkinson spent nine months at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa.
"We will not save free speech if we are not prepared to go to jail in its defense," Wilkinson said after the decision. "I am prepared to pay that price."
Wilkinson received a lifetime achievement award from the American Civil Liberties Union in 1999.
