Danville civil rights leader remembered as a ‘fighter, a lover of people’

From staff reports

One of the front line leaders in the local civil rights movement passed away this weekend.

Clyde Banks died Saturday after a long illness. He was 84 and lived at the Gretna Health Care Center.

“He was a fighter, a lover of people,” said his sister, Phyllis Hunt. “He tried to help everybody.”

Willie Fitzgerald, president of the Pittsylvania County chapter of the NAACP, said Banks led the local chapter for 40 years. In that time, Fitzgerald said Banks was instrumental in helping him and many blacks find jobs, but he never took credit for it.

He also said Banks was instrumental in integrating county public schools. He lobbied to get blacks hired as sheriff’s deputies. He fought to get black teachers the same salary as their white counterparts.

Fitzgerald said Banks had impeccable moral character and never wanted to stand out in the spotlight.

“He did a lot in the county that’s really gone unnoticed,” Fitzgerald said.

Mayor Sherman Saunders said in an article published Feb. 16, 2004, in the Danville Register & Bee that he owed a lot to Banks.

Saunders first met Banks at High Street Baptist Church in 1963, at the height of the local civil rights movement. Saunders said Banks inspired him to stand up for the causes that he believes in. “That’s what made me run for city council,” Saunders said. “People who disagree with Clyde still respect Clyde because he fought for what he believed was right.”

Saunders added that Banks helped found Pittsylvania County Community Action in 1965. Saunders directs the organization today.

“Clyde Banks’ handprint is all over the place,” Saunders said.

Banks’ political activities allowed him to form relationships with former Gov. Gerald Balilies, former U.S. Sen. Chuck Robb, D-Va., and former state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Mary Sue Terry. He was invited to Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

His son Clyde Banks Jr., of Springfield said in an earlier interview that his father impacted what he has learned in life. “Like any dad, he was always teaching you one thing or another,” Banks said.

The younger Banks said his father inspired him to live up to his decisions. “You wear the choices you make.”

The elder Banks operated Travelers Inn in Chatham for nearly 40 years. His funeral will be conducted 1 p.m. Saturday from Corinth Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church, 161 Reid St., in Chatham.