Stanley, Frank Leslie, Jr.
(born: January 1, 1937 - died: February 23, 2007)Journalist Frank L. Stanley, Jr. served as editor and publisher of the Louisville (KY) Defender newspaper until 1976. He also chaired the Allied Organizations for Civil Rights (AOCR), the organization that coordinated the 1964 March on Frankfort, KY where Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed 10,000 citizens. The march was in support of the public accommodations bill, which did not pass.
Stanley was active in many civil rights efforts in Louisville, including voter registration and public demonstrations. In 1968, he was executive director of the Los Angeles National Urban League. In 1974, Governor Julian Carroll appointed him executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Corrections and Community Service. Ten years later he planned to run as a Democratic candidate for mayor of Louisville.
Frank L. Stanley, Jr. died in Smyrna, TN, and he is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. He was the son of journalist Frank L. Stanley Sr. and Ione H. Garrett. He was a graduate of Louisville Central High School, the University of Illinois, and George Washington University.
For more see Kentucky's Black Heritage, by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; "Frank L. Stanley Jr., (1937-2007), Louisville, KY" at the 2014 Kentucky on Human Rights Hall of Fame website; and P. Burba, "Frank Stanley, Jr., champion of civil rights in Louisville, dies at 70," Courier-Journal (Louisville), 3/2/2007, News section, p. 4B.