Virgil Roberts

Virgil Roberts was born in Ventura, California to parents who had fled the difficult life of sharecropping in East Texas, part of the Great Migration of African Americans who left the South in search of better opportunities. As a member of a small but loving and supportive black community, he benefited not only from high expectations at home but the interest of several teachers and community members who pushed him to excel. Through community help, he attended Ventura College in Ventura, California and later transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. degree in 1968. While there, he became involved in cultural and political activism and helped found UCLA’s African American studies program. After doing graduate studies for a year, Roberts earned his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1972.

In 1972, Roberts joined the Los Angeles law firm of Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernhard and Sears as an associate and civil litigator. There, he handled business litigation and did pro-bono work for civil rights organizations. In 1976, Roberts left the firm to start his own practice, Reynolds & Roberts, where his clients included Associated Booking Corporation, Norman Whitfield, and the Whispers. He was named president and general counsel of SOLAR Records in 1990, where he was instrumental in creating Death Row Records. In 1996, Roberts founded the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts along with Leroy Bobbitt.

For nearly twenty years, he has worked tirelessly to improve the public school system in Los Angeles and elsewhere. He founded and served as chair of the African American Board Leadership Institute and as director of Great Public Schools NOW. In 2018, a middle school, the Alliance Virgil Roberts Leadership Academy, was named in his honor.