Civil rights leader Roy Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1923. While a student, Wilkins served as a cub reporter and editor of the Daily from 1920-1923. In this autobiography, Wilkins described his experience working at the newspaper:
“During my last year in college I became a night editor. In the afternoons, at about four o’clock, after classes were over, I hoofed it over to the Daily office, where I read and edited stories brought in by reporters who had picked up their assignments earlier from the day editor. The managing editor and I then decided the news play for the next day’s edition. I laid out the front page, wrote six and seven-column banner and streamer heads for the big news, smaller heads for double column boxes, and captions. I also corrected galley proofs, approved the final page proofs, and put the paper to bed at a print shop in Minneapolis…
...I edited the paper once or twice a week, earning three dollars for each stretch at the print shop. Those were probably the happiest nights I spent at college.”
- Excerpt from Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins, page 49.
