
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993                   TAG: 9306160270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REV. R.R. WILKINSON DIES AT 69

The Rev. R.R. Wilkinson, a Roanoke pioneer in the civil rights movement, died Tuesday. He was 69.

Wilkinson was president of the city NAACP chapter through the stormy years of 1959 to 1969, years that saw the desegregation of schools and the integration of theaters, hospitals and downtown lunch counters.

The Rev. Carl Tinsley, also a former president of the NAACP, called Wilkinson "a spearheader of civil rights here in the valley . . . a bold man with a lot of courage."

"His house was shot through, he was threatened, but he never stopped. . . . He put his life on the line."

Wilkinson, pastor of Hill Street Baptist Church for 33 years until his retirement in 1991, spoke with a booming, baritone voice that caught people's attention, Tinsley said. "Anyone listening could not help but feel the emotion and power."

Wilkinson was a member of the Biracial Committee, a group of blacks and whites who met privately and worked behind the scenes to smooth the integration process in Roanoke and avoid violence.

In a newspaper article 10 years ago, Lawrence Hamlar, president of Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home Inc., recalled his leadership.

"Rev. Wilkinson worked us both ways. He pushed us and held [black activists] in check. He'd tell us what their timetable was. We knew we had to stay one step ahead."

Wilkinson said in 1963: "I feel very keenly that we should negotiate as far as possible with those in authority . . . those with their feet on our necks."

As recently as a few years ago, Wilkinson mourned what he saw as a lack of solidarity and will among Roanoke's black residents.

"Out of all my civil rights struggle, in 1989 very few blacks have made their way above the middle-class level," he said. "We're going backwards. It's heartaching."

"Roanoke owes a great deal to Wilkinson for his foresight and his leadership," Tinsley said. "He was not afraid to put his life on the line for what he believed in and what he felt was right."

Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

by CNB