LIFTING EVERY VOICE

An educator and political activist recounts the long arc from segregation to civil rights and beyond.

Born in segregated Roanoke, Robertson (1933-2021) excelled in school and attended Bluefield State College, a historically Black college in West Virginia. There, he encountered professors who encouraged him to prepare for the changing time that was fast upon them: “They espoused the belief that America could not continue down the road it was traveling: equity was coming.” When educational desegregation was finally put into place in the 1960s, Robertson was on hand to enter a formerly forbidden graduate school and embark on a distinguished career as a teacher. Many other accomplishments were to come, as portrayed in this passionate memoir. Aware of Robertson’s skills at providing guidance and counsel to his young charges, Gov. Linwood Holton (who provides the foreword), one of the last members of the progressive wing of the Republican Party, asked him to join his administration to improve conditions for young Black people. That led him into further government work, including appointments in civil rights and equal opportunity under the Reagan administration, which, he allows, was problematic: “I understood that the Reagan administration was labeled ‘racist,’ but nevertheless, I felt I could make a positive difference in the lives of Black people in the United States and abroad.” Of course, racism has endured. As a young man, writes the author, “I always believed that White children grew up free, whereas Black children grew up inhibited, told to keep their hands in sight while shopping, to never touch merchandise until ready to purchase for fear of accusations of theft, and to never argue with police, just to obey them in whatever they told you to do.” Having returned to the classroom until finally retiring in his late 70s, he worries that the country continues to fail to honor another Virginian’s proclamation that all men are created equal.

An inspiring, exemplary account of a life well lived.