Wakefield Roberts, a North Carolina native, worked with migrant workers in Adams County during the mid-1950s after serving with the Army’s 82nd Airborne  Division during the Korean War.

By 1956, Rev. Roberts was transferred to St. John AME Zion Church on Bethlehem’s South Side. After leaving the parish in 1966, Roberts went on to serve as executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, working with Pat Levin, the then executive director of Allentown’s Community Services for Children.

“We are all grateful for his vision,” Levin said.

Roberts would go on to help found the Bethlehem  Community Civic League, which strove to eliminate discrimination in housing, employment and education. He also worked with the Colored Voters Association and the Elks.

Esther Lee, then president of the Bethlehem NAACP said Roberts was a visionary who worked diligently to advance race relations in the Lehigh Valley before the civil rights movement drew national attention during the 1960s.

“Roberts always tried to push all of us to be better,” Lee said. “A lot of what we have today would not have been possible without his efforts.”