Biography
Woodrow Wilson Gillis was a Black man who, after being attacked by a white man and woman in Kinston, North Carolina in 1965 — the white man having pulled a knife on him — was himself convicted of assaulting the white couple and sentenced to 18 to 20 years on a North Carolina chain gang. He escaped and settled in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, living for years as a respected community member under the name Woodrow Wilson. In 1974, at age 51, he faced extradition back to North Carolina to serve at least 16 more years; his attorney David Kairys and his neighbors petitioned Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp not to send him back. Documented in The Black Panther (July 6, 1974).
The Black Panther of August 31, 1974 published an individually captioned photograph of Woodrow Wilson Gillis and reported that he was living in Philadelphia under the name Woodrow Wilson. Its account described the campaign opposing his return to North Carolina after his escape from a chain gang; the report does not establish a new prison-admission or physical release date.
Original contemporary source 1 ; Original contemporary source 2.
