Birth date: Apr 6, 1931 Death date: Dec 28, 2024
The life celebration service for Dr. Virgil A. Wood will be livestreamed on the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church website via the link below. The livestream will begin just before 11:00 AM. The website will indicate the next service w Read Obituary
I studied the Enneagram with Dr. Wood in Pennsylvania. I followed him around like a little puppy dog, I thought he was so wonderful. He was a blessing to the world, and we were lucky to have him in it.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Virgil https://www.spreaker.com/episode/just-third-way-hour-26-civil-rights-icon-dr-virgil-wood--15282704
You can hear his own words showing his legacy would be merging the work of King and Kelso. Our movement has traditionally been about doing so through legislation. But Virgil's revelation is that it will first spring forth as part of spiritual jubilee. Perhaps the faith/beloved community can build a crypto system to empower all through principles of Binary Economics and King's "synthesis". We now have the tools to fulfill Virgil's beautiful vision. It will work and official sanctioning of the Economic Democracy Act will naturally follow. Thanking God for the incredible work of Dr. Virgil Wood.
Dave Hamill
edanetwork.org
Tribute to Dr. Virgil Wood Part II
Isidro Garza, Jr. PE
15 January 2025
He encouraged working together with Dr. Ruth Simmons, first African American female to head Prairieview A&M. Though he never met her because of his ailing health which restricted his travel, I would often talk to him about the great heart of the current President Dr. Tomikia P. Legrande, the new president of Prairie View A&M and how she plans for a restoration of dignity to the slave cemetery on property belonging to the University and to be celebrated on 14 August 2026 on the 150th anniversary of Prairie View A&M. This is in sync with a lifelong effort by Dr. Bishop Walter Pendelton, a direct descendant of GW Wyatt, one of the first African American Texas State Representative after emancipation.
Dr. Wood showed me the boxes of original documents he accumulated throughout his life, including original notes dating back to the times he lived with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today, as we celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, we are reminded that it was his wish for all of these documents to be preserved in a manner and place worthy of respect.
Dr. Wood envisioned what the world would be like if NAACP and LULAC would truly unite with one common purpose for the greater common good. He had such great admiration for Tieman “Skipper” Dippel’s writings in The Language of Conscience series. Dr. Wood in Project Jubilee 1865 stated, “One symptom of our malaise is educational systems all over America---the sending of black and Hispanic males to prison instead of to university---is the result of education without soul. A nation fostering education without soul is a nation on the way to its own doom. He encouraged stronger relations with Dr. Richard Johnson and Bill Mahomes, both Regents at TSU and Texas A&M respectively, always stressing the importance of education. He led a delegation of LULAC and NAACP in talking truth to power with Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. The delegation included the great legendary LULAC leader Johnny Mata, Dr. Robert Mohammed, Judson Robinson, Donna Bahorich who was the Chairman of the State Board of Education and the Chief of Staff of HISD Sylvia Saenz Trinh. He emphasized bringing together NAACP with LULAC by working closely with Bishop James Dixon and Gary Bledsoe. He was impressed by my prison Pastor JR Williams spending long hours showing us the way!
As I close, I come to the realization of how little I have said and how much more I left out. Dr. Wood’s accomplishments in making this a more Godly world are well documented. Now it is up to us to continue his legacy! May God take Dr. Wood’s soul in his loving hands and affirm that he has “ran the good race” and that now he can Rest in His Peace.
Isidro Garza, Jr. PE
League of United Latin American Citizens LULAC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_Wood
Tribute to Dr. Virgil Wood
A Tribute to Dr. Virgil Wood (Part I)
Isidro Garza, Jr. PE
15 January 2025
My dear friend, Dr. Virgil Wood, my Pastor, my Mentor, I miss you! When you meet Dr. Wood, please have a pen and paper ready to take notes and even then, you will be lucky to absorb only a small fraction of his message. I met him soon after I came out of Federal Prison in 2010, when all our convictions were vacated by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and my 235 months sentence was replaced with time served after 811 days. He spoke with praise of this common prison experience we both lived through. I would miss him even as he was with us as we would spend countless hours partaking of his wisdom that he shared with me and my family, knowing that this day would eventually come. At 93 he was taken away from us prematurely for he had so much more he wanted to get accomplished here on earth in His Beloved Community, where darkness was displaced with “Light”, where there would be no sickness nor poverty, where there would be no discrimination for all loved each other with Agape love, where all would serve others before oneself.
He would often talk about his pride and joy, Lillian, whom he loved and adored, and of his banker son David, and of course his angelic daughter, Deborah. Oh, how I miss him. In the Magnificat, Our Blessed Mother Mary asked why it was her, a lowly servant, that had been chosen to carry the Son of God. When I get to heaven, I too will ask Jesus why He blessed us so undeservingly with a relationship with such an anointed, loving person as my friend, Dr. Wood.
Dr. Wood would not only speak with unmatched authority on a plethora of subjects, but he would also listen intently. He was fascinated by a sermon my youngest son, Fernando, wrote entitled “Mary Had a Little Lamb. In this dichotomy, when Jesus was asked about his ancestry and who he was, he responded by saying, “On my mother’s side, Mary had a little lamb. And on my Father’s side he was the Son of God, the Lion of Judah.”
Then he would shift back to the community he envisioned, which I am certain was the foundation for Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”. It was transformational where Conscience triumphed over Convenience, moving from Plantation Slavery to Community Economics. He knew people with an abundance of resources all over the country, but he knew he could count on his Provider and spoke as if his resources were limitless. In his Beloved Community his vision would start with old plantations, from Hearne, Bryan, Navasota, Brenham, Hempstead, Prairie View, Wharton, Kendleton, Sugarland, and Galveston.
He would speak of always allowing an honorable way out to those who had harmed us, where forgiveness and repentance would be the order of the day. He would often say that George Wallace was in heaven because he repented for the suffering he inflicted through his bigotry and because of daddy Martin Luther King Sr’s forgiveness. Now they are all together advocating for better lives for you and I and for all of our loved ones.
To the wife, daughter, son and family of my beloved college professor -- Virgil Wood:
Please know that I will forever be grateful for the impact that Virgil had on my college education and for hosting me on my first trip to Boston, which resulted in me earning 3 degrees from Boston University; For working with him at his SCLC Office on Blue Hill Avenue; and for meeting my wife, Marva, who was a student at Boston Conservatory of Music. Knowing Virgil, gave me the opportunity to meet Martin Luther King Jr. 4 times, and led to his recruitment of me to Morehouse College, where I have now served for 45 years as the founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. This Chapel is the world's most prominent religious memorial to Dr. King, class of 1948. It was also a rich blessing to work with Virgil in Lynchburg, Virginia, as he led nonviolent demonstrations for civil rights. My job was to run the mimeograph machine at Diamond Hill Baptist Church. I also witnessed the prayer meetings and rallies at Court Street Baptist Church with Dr. Harold A. Carter. So many sweet memories, especially Virgil inviting Dr. King to Boston to speak on the Boston Commons.
We have Virgil's oil portrait in the African American Hall of Fame of the King Chapel. He now belongs to the ancestors, the ages, and the archangels.
Peace and Richest Blessings,
The Family of Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., Dean
Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel
Morehouse College
Atlanta, Georgia
Virgil Wood was instrumental in getting me field work while I was matriculating at Andover Newton Theological School at Blue Hill Christian Center in the Roxbury area of Boston. I always remembered his graciousness in facilitating that for me. He came to Second in Los Angeles as our guest to market the Bible he was instrumental in getting together that reflected the relevance for African Americans citing their presence in the Bible. He was a noteworthy activist, humanitarian and scholar par excellence. Thanks for what you have poured into so many. Pericles says what we leave behind when we exit this ephemeral reality is not etch in monuments of stones but what you poured into the lives of others. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord they rest from their labors and their works follow them. Amen. William S. Epps Second Baptist Church Los Angeles.
