News-Record.com

All right, I’m exaggerating. Wilkins isn’t that big anymore, having shed maybe a hundred pounds since I first met him not long after he moved to High Point in 1984. Back then, he looked like an NFL defensive end. Add a booming voice and uproarious laugh and, man, there was no hiding him. You always knew when Wilkins was around, and he was always around somewhere.

A graduate of Southeastern Theological Seminary at Wake Forest, Wilkins was hired by Green Street Baptist Church to lead a mission church with a small congregation in one of the poorest parts of the city. He’s been the pastor there, Grimes Street Baptist, ever since, supplementing his small income with odd jobs. Over the years he delivered papers, drove a cab and worked at a homeless shelter, among other occupations.

When he went into politics, he could relate to the struggles his constituents faced every day. Here was a councilman who for years lacked health insurance, depended on the bus for transportation and had to worry about crime.

Wilkins officiated at a wedding I attended years ago. It happened to be on New Year’s Eve, and he stayed for the reception — until about 11. “I’ve got to get home before they start shooting,” he said, referring to revelers in his neighborhood who rang in the New Year with gunfire.

Later, Wilkins moved into public housing, where he reports fewer problems with crime.

Wilkins was helpful to me when I worked for the High Point Enterprise, lining up writers for a Sunday devotional column. He was one of the few clergymen in town who knew white and black ministers in roughly equal numbers and could make sure both groups were fairly represented in the paper.

Wilkins always had a knack for bridging divisions between people. He seems equally at ease with leaders in the white and black communities, with the powerful and the down-and-out. “I have preached funerals of all kinds of people,” he says.

He will draw a line when he believes strongly in a cause, however, no matter what it costs. He pushed hard, and ultimately without success, to have College Drive renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. A couple of churches reacted by withdrawing financial support for his church, Wilkins says, leaving him without any salary at all. He won’t say which ones.

He’d already made a huge sacrifice when he first ran for the council. He had to quit a job with the city’s community development department, losing a good paycheck and benefits. He went for years without medical coverage, which proved costly when he endured a long hospitalization because of diabetes-related complications.

When a politician goes through something like that, you know he’s not in it for his own gain.

I don’t wish poverty on anyone, but it probably wouldn’t hurt if a few more elected officials lived like Wilkins for a while. They might develop a better idea of how government could smooth some of the rough edges of life.

Wilkins’ primary cause in recent years has been extending bus service, which currently ends at 6:30 p.m. So far, he hasn’t overcome objections based on cost. He won’t get it done before he leaves office, but it’s an issue that some of the contenders for his seat already have picked up.

It wouldn’t be on the table if it weren’t for Wilkins.

If not for Wilkins, in fact, it would have been a lot easier to ignore the concerns of High Point’s low-income and minority communities. Wilkins has been the conscience of the council. When this big-hearted man speaks, people listen.

I hope he enjoys good health and a strong voice for many more years.

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