Clark Funeral Home was established on this site in 1969 by Wilkie Clark and his wife and business partner, Hattie Peters Clark, fulfilling the lifelong dream of the well-known civil rights activist and entrepreneur. It stood in the East Roanoke Black community, which included the Randolph County Training School, churches, and businesses, and this location came to be known as the unofficial home of the Civil Rights Movement in Randolph County. Born in Carrollton, Georgia, in 1920, Wilkie Clark was a World War II veteran and the award-winning founding president of Randolph County NAACP, Branch #5053, while Hattie P. Clark was a Randolph County public school educator for more than three decades. Recognizing the need for Black people to have economic independence during early struggles for enhanced civil rights in Randolph County, the Clarks established their own business with the support of the Black community, freeing themselves from the economic dependency that had prevented Black civil rights leaders from combating Jim Crow segregation and economic and political oppression in the region. They used the business as a platform to advance civil rights reform in Roanoke and Randolph County. Wilkie Clark, a long-time advocate for the education of Black students, became the first Black candidate for a seat on the Randolph County Board of Education and was instrumental in advocating for the hiring of the first Black police officers in Roanoke and for desegregating the city’s recreation facilities. Wilkie and Hattie Lee also petitioned the city of Roanoke to pave streets in the Black community and provide water and sewer services that were available only in White neighborhoods. During the 1980s, they were especially active as key members of a coalition of education, civic, clerical, and business leaders that pushed for enforcement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and supported a lawsuit, in which Clark was a plaintiff, designed to strengthen it. The coalition successfully advocated for additional polling sites, the inclusion of Blacks as poll workers, and the creation of new single member voting districts from which Black residents could be elected. Wilkie Clark was among the local leaders in the movement for enhanced economic, educational, and political representation for the Black community in Roanoke and Randolph County.