Cleo F. Wilson
Nonprofit administrator and foundation executive Cleo Wilson was born in 1943, and spent her early years in the Chicago housing project of Altgeld Gardens. After spending two years at Robert Crane High School, Wilson graduated from the Frances Parker High School in 1961. Later that year, Wilson enrolled at Chicago State Teacher’s College, now Chicago State University. In her sophomore year, however, she left school to protest school segregation in Chicago’s Englewood community and later, the Vietnam War. After leaving the activist movement to support her children, Wilson worked as a keypunch operator until deciding to return to school in 1973. She received her B.A. degree in English from Chicago State in 1976.
In 1976, Wilson was hired as an accounting clerk for Playboy. She eventually worked her way up to supervisor of Accounts Payable. In 1982, she joined the Playboy Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hugh Hefner’s empire. After just two years, she was appointed Executive Director of the foundation. As its head, she included employees in the process, asking for their opinion on grant decisions. Wilson also engaged the Foundation in the process of “microphilanthropy,”—giving smaller amounts of money to more organizations—including many grassroots efforts in Chicago. Wilson also continued to fight for civil liberties and racial equality, filing a lawsuit against the City of Chicago and State of Illinois to ensure fair voting protection for Chicago’s African American residents and serving as vice president of the Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She was also an early HIV/AIDS activist, beginning in the 1980s, when HIV/AIDS was still very poorly comprehended and stigmatized by the general public. She was appointed to the Chicago AIDS Foundation’s Board of Directors in 1989, and starting in the next year served as president of that organization for three years.
In 2002, Wilson became president of The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, a Chicago nonprofit organization dedicated to highlighting self-taught and outsider art, and in 2007, she became executive director of the center. She left Playboy after 25 years of service in 2005, but has continued to tour on the lecture circuit and is a board member or advisor for many civic organizations.
Cleo Wilson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 25, 2010.
A2010.100
Female
8/25/2010
Wilson
Divorced
F.
Richard T. Crane Medical Preparatory High School
Parker High School
Chicago State University
University of Illinois at Chicago
Cleo
Chicago
WIL55
Fall
Illinois
Europe
God Damn It!
Illinois
5/7/1943
Chicago
USA
Coconut Cake
Nonprofit administrator and foundation executive Cleo F. Wilson (1943 - ) served with the Playboy Foundation for twenty-five years, and was advocate of civil rights, HIV/AIDS awareness and the arts.
Playboy Inc.
Playboy Foundation
Center of Intuitive and Outsider Art (Intuit)
Light Green
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611274">Tape: 1 Slating of Cleo F. Wilson's interview</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611275">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson lists her favorites</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611281">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson describes how her parents met</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611282">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson describes her parents' personalities and who she takes after</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611284">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson describes her earliest childhood memory</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611285">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson lists her siblings</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611286">Tape: 1 Cleo F. Wilson describes the sights, sounds and smells of her childhood</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611287">Tape: 2 Cleo F. Wilson remembers George Washington Carver Primary School in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611291">Tape: 2 Cleo F. Wilson describes her schooling in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611295">Tape: 2 Cleo F. Wilson remembers joining the protests against the Willis Wagons in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611300">Tape: 3 Cleo F. Wilson recalls her criticism of nonviolent philosophy</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611302">Tape: 3 Cleo F. Wilson remembers the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611303">Tape: 3 Cleo F. Wilson recalls the assassinations of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611304">Tape: 3 Cleo F. Wilson remembers her first divorce</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611305">Tape: 3 Cleo F. Wilson recalls meeting her second husband</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611313">Tape: 4 Cleo F. Wilson describes the Playboy Foundation's support for the arts</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611315">Tape: 4 Cleo F. Wilson describes the Will Feed Community Organization in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611320">Tape: 5 Cleo F. Wilson describes Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago, Illinois</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611324">Tape: 5 Cleo F. Wilson describes how she would like to be remembered</a>
<a href="https://da.thehistorymakers.org/story/611325">Tape: 5 Cleo F. Wilson narrates her photographs</a>
