Leonard Alkins, former leader of Boston’s NAACP, dies at 77 – The Boston Globe

Years earlier than the Black Lives Matter motion elevated the nationwide deal with points affecting individuals of coloration, Mr. Alkins was immersed in causes that drew far much less consideration in his period.

“Lenny was advocating for high quality colleges, inexpensive housing, and neighborhood funding for Black and brown individuals, and a response to well being inequities that left individuals of coloration extra susceptible,” mentioned Michael Curry, a previous president of Boston’s NAACP department.

“At that time, only a few individuals had been being attentive to these vital points, and the insurance policies didn’t mirror their urgency,” Curry mentioned. “He led most of the efforts to drive a change in insurance policies within the Metropolis of Boston.”

Mr. Alkins did so whereas working to resuscitate an ailing group. Within the years earlier than he was elected president, membership had plummeted within the Boston department and the nationwide NAACP had positioned it in a receivership standing to handle its monetary woes.

Hesitating at first earlier than committing to steer the department, Mr. Alkins mentioned in an interview that though he was Boston-born and had grown up within the Orchard Park housing mission, he and his household had moved to Brockton within the Seventies.

“I initially instructed them I felt the place belonged to somebody who lived within the Metropolis of Boston,” he instructed the Globe after being elected in December 1995. “However the place you reside has no relevancy.”

His expertise navigating politics was extra related than his mailing tackle.

By the point he was elected president of Boston’s NAACP, Mr. Alkins had three a long time of expertise on the State Home, having labored first as a legislative web page till his skills caught the eye of state Senator Kevin Harrington, who employed him for his personal workplace.

As Harrington rose to change into Senate president, Mr. Alkins discovered his personal tasks rising as properly.

Inside lower than a decade on the senator’s employees, Mr. Alkins was Harrington’s go-through individual.

“So as to get to see Harrington, an individual should first get by Leonard Alkins,” the Globe reported in 1973.

Two years later, in a Globe function on highly effective, high legislative aides, a reporter dubbed Mr. Alkins the Henry Kissinger of Harrington’s employees – likening his clout within the Massachusetts Senate to that held in Washington, D.C., by the US secretary of state.

“Alkins’s main process is to defuse the feelings of adversaries coming earlier than the Senate president to have their disputes adjudicated,” the Globe famous.

When Harrington left the Senate in 1978, Mr. Alkins turned clerk of the Joint Committee on Guidelines, the place he remained for the remainder of his four-decade profession with the Legislature.

Upon being elected to steer the Boston NAACP in 1995, Mr. Alkins referred to as it “a fantastic day” for the group, which honored him with its distinguished service award in 2008.

“We’re wanting ahead to an thrilling yr, and resurrecting this chapter,” he instructed the Globe. “We’re wanting ahead to rebuilding our reference to church buildings. We will likely be dedicated to voter registration, membership drives, and civil rights usually.”

Leonard Conrad Alkins, who shared his first and center names with these of his grandfathers, was born in Boston on Aug. 18, 1944.

Although he spent his childhood in an period when segregation intruded into the lives of Boston’s individuals of coloration, he grew up with buddies of all races, mentioned his spouse, Carole.

His mom, Barbara Blizzard Alkins, raised the household’s youngsters – Mr. Alkins was the third of 9. His father, Charles L. Alkins, spent 38 years on the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, the place he was a driver for the motor pool.

A Boston Commerce Excessive College graduate, and an Military Reserves veteran, Mr. Alkins married Carole Ann Wilson in 1966.

They’d been acquainted lengthy earlier than they started relationship as highschool seniors.

“I knew him from the time we went to St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church,” she mentioned.

Together with working into one another on Sundays on the Roxbury church, the 2 knew one another via their households, which socialized collectively.

Carole mentioned that via his years within the State Home, her husband “grew into the person we all know, who had sturdy beliefs and beliefs about what was the appropriate factor to do, and that you just work collectively in your constituency, you don’t work for your self.”

Although the calls for of labor with the Legislature and the NAACP saved Mr. Alkins busy, at house “he actually was very family-oriented,” she mentioned. “He used to say, ‘I really like coming house sitting across the desk, having conversations with my youngsters.’ ”

Whereas Mr. Alkins led the Boston NAACP, the department yearly fielded numerous experiences of discrimination that concerned housing, legislation enforcement, training, and different issues, Curry mentioned.

“Give credit score to Lenny for being the chief who responded to a lot of these complaints and resolved these complaints to have a long-lasting impression on households on this metropolis,” Curry mentioned. “He has had an indelible mark within the Metropolis of Boston via his advocacy on behalf of households.”

Along with his spouse, Mr. Alkins leaves their two youngsters, Leonard Jr. of Dorchester and Pamela of Englewood, N.J.; a sister, Patricia Clark of Franklin; six brothers Charles of Sharon, David of Lincoln, Kenneth of Atlanta, Stephen and Brian, each of Randolph, and Jeffrey of Dorchester; and two grandsons.

A celebration of Mr. Alkins’s life and legacy will likely be held at midday on April 30 in Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury.

Together with being a outstanding voice for Boston’s Black neighborhood and other people of coloration, Mr. Alkins was a longtime mentor to younger activists comparable to Curry, whom he helped information to being elected to the nationwide NAACP board in 2014.

“Not solely did Lenny handle the struggles of being a frontrunner extraordinarily properly, modeling that management to me and others, however he additionally inspired us and checked in on us,” mentioned Curry, who has served on the nationwide NAACP’s govt committee and chairs the board’s advocacy and coverage committee.

“Lenny was my buddy, he was my mentor,” Curry mentioned, and somebody who appeared tireless in his efforts.

“Whereas many individuals had been at house, Lenny was at a gathering, Lenny was at a convention, Lenny was partaking about points with legislative leaders, with mayors, with governors. He had devoted his life to addressing systemic points when society wasn’t able to,” Curry mentioned. “He had a lifelong dedication to being our voice, our presence, our advocate on problems with significance to communities of coloration.”

Bryan Marquard could be reached at bryan.marquard@globe.com.