Rev. Raymond Rogers Wilkinson (1923 - 1993)

Raymond “R.R.” Wilkinson, one of 11 children, grew up on his family’s farm in Amelia County. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he attended Virginia Union University, where he earned degrees in education (1952) and divinity (1955). In 1958, Wilkinson became pastor of Roanoke’s Hill Street Baptist Church—a position he held for more than 30 years. Wilkinson served as president of the Roanoke Branch of the NAACP from 1959 to 1968, during which he fought the segregation of public spaces in the city and job discrimination in local government and business. Despite threats to his safety, Wilkinson never stopped advocating for civil rights. A powerful orator, he successfully fought white city leaders to close a city dump located in a black neighborhood, and later protested urban renewal efforts that destroyed black communities. Wilkinson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Roanoke Branch of the NAACP named its annual award for social justice in his honor. In 2021, The R.R. Wilkinson Foundation was established to promote awareness of Roanoke’s civil rights movement, and in 2023, the city named a street for Wilkinson near the site of the former dump in Washington Park.

2023 Strong Men and Women in Virginia History honoree, Library of Virginia and Dominion Energy.