Civil Rights Pioneer Kilgore to Speak at Compton Convocation

The Rev. Thomas Kilgore Jr., pioneer civil rights leader, will be the featured speaker at the annual convocation at Compton Community College at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in the gymnasium.

Kilgore’s civil rights work began during World War II when he organized voter registration and unions for tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, N.C. He supervised the New York office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference between 1959 and 1963.

After helping organize the civil rights march on Washington in 1963, Kilgore moved to California to serve as West Coast director of the SCLC.

Born in North Carolina, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, and is chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees. He earned his master of divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His most recent ministry was at Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles, where he is pastor emeritus.