By Caleb Pugh | Our Weekly
Longtime civil rights lawyer and civic leader Virgil Roberts was recently honored at the African American Board Leadership Institute’s (AABLI) 15th Anniversary Tribute Dinner for his decade-long work focused on helping build a pipeline of Black leaders serving on corporate, nonprofit, and civic boards—roles that shape funding, policy, and opportunity in our communities.
“I’m always honored to be honored, especially by my peers. This was a vision I shared with people around me 15 years ago, and I’m proud that it’s still here and hopeful it remains for another 15 years,” Roberts humbly said.
He also took the moment to acknowledge that none of his achievements or awards mean anything if his team and network are not recognized. “I have mixed feelings about being honored because I feel like people serve best in accomplishing things when there’s no attention on them. The work we have done could not be accomplished if I didn’t have the people around me supporting and nurturing the vision, so I am honored to receive the award, but none of anything I’ve done would have happened without my team playing a pivotal role.”
In 2011, Virgil Roberts and Yvette Chapell-Ingram co-founded the AABLI. With other corporate, nonprofit, and philanthropic executives, they came together to develop a pipeline of qualified African American candidates to serve on nonprofit and for-profit governing boards as well as public commissions. This pipeline has trained 1,100 African American professionals to serve on governing boards through the Board Leadership Program and developed and executed custom training to create lasting change that contributes to employees’ success.
“These kids need support, and that’s why supporting their education is at the top of my list. I am extremely proud to have created the Alliance of College Ready Public Schools, which, after 20 years, helped over 12,000 scholars reach and graduate from college at a 97 percent graduation rate.” Roberts said about his civic work. “People don’t know that kids who drop out of high school have a 93 percent rate of going to prison, while kids who graduate have a rate that drops to 13 percent. Investing in these kids’ education gives them a better chance of living a free life, and that’s not something we can overlook.”
Roberts has a long, decorated history working as a civil rights lawyer, among other occupations, like being the managing partner for the entertainment law firm Bobbitt & Roberts, which has represented such clients as Usher, Kanye West, Chaka Khan, Deathrow Records, Blackground Records, Slip ‘n’ Slide Records, the Ruff Ryders, the J. Walter Thompson Agency, and MTV. He was president and general counsel of Solar Records. One of the most successful African American-owned record companies in the 80s and 90s. He is also Vice Chairman of Usher’s New Look Foundation and Chairman of AABLI. Roberts also worked pro bono, representing the NAACP from 1978 to 1981 in the Los Angeles school desegregation case, Crawford v. Board of Education.
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