Ira Robinson, 85, First Alexandria City Council Member Post-Reconstruction, Dies

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Ira L. Robinson, an attorney who became the African-American to serve on Alexandria City Council, died last Friday at age 85 in Temecula, California, the city government announced.

Born in 1938 in New York City, Robinson's parents had moved from central Virginia in the time of the "great northern migration." When his father died when Robinson was 6, the family moved back to his mother's family home in Richmond. His mother started domestic work with help from her sister, a teacher in the segregated public schools, to take care of Robinson and his brother.

Robinson graduated from Virginia Union University in 1959, following his aunt's career bath to teach elementary school. In fall 1964, he was admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law and was the fourth African American student to earn a UVA law degree.

After that, Robinson moved to Alexandria in 1967 to work as an associate legal counsel with the Susquehanna Corporation, then administrative assistant to the president of aerospace firm Atlantic Research Corporation.

In 1970, Robinson was elected to Alexandria City Council as a Democrat. That happened in a time of racial unrest following the fatal shooting of African American teen Robin Gibson by a 7-Eleven manager. During three years on City Council, Robinson helped bring forward the 1971 integration plan for Alexandria's secondary public schools. That same year, the integrated T.C. Williams High School won the state football championship, which was memorialized in the Disney movie "Remember the Titans."

Other priorities for Robinson on City Council were education, housing and law enforcement reforms. Robinson, a Democrat, was known to have civil debates with Republican Wiley F. Mitchell, which led to increases in hiring minority residents, distributing moderate and low-income housing citywide, developing the Metro area transit and helping drive the eventual development of the Potomac Railroad Yard, Cameron Station, and the neighborhoods along the Route 1 corridor and Mount Vernon Avenue.

Before joining City Council, Robinson focused his activism on policing and relations with African American youth and advocated for African American youth athletes needing legal advice. He served on the Alexandria Crime Commission in 1968 and as an adviser to a Michigan State University team hired by the city manager to produce a "Study of Police Community Relations" in Alexandria. Robinson also served on the Alexandria Commission on Criminal Justice and the Metropolitan Council of Government’s Task Force on Drug Abuse, chaired the city’s Urban League voter registration drive, served on the boards of the local branch of the NAACP and the Boys Club, and was a member of the Alexandria Economic Opportunities Commission and the Mayor’s ad hoc Committee on Health Care.

When his term on City Council ended, Robinson transferred to Susquehanna’s Los Angeles office and advised various firms on healthcare and real estate law. He retired from K&R Law in Los Angeles in 2006.

He moved to Temecula, California upon retiring and focused on political activism. His work included registering voters, campaigning for Democratic candidates in Republican-majority districts and serving on the legal redress committee of the Southwest Riverside County branch of the NAACP. Robinson returned to Northern Virginia twice in recent years to work on Election Day through the national Democratic Party’s voter protection team.

Robinson is survived by former wives Sharon Derring Robinson of Playa Vista, California, and Barbara Thibault Robinson of Irvine, California, daughter Cary D. Robinson of Playa Vista, son Marcus A. Robinson (Raquel Lizniansky) of Tracy, CA, two granddaughters, Jasmine Tookes-Borrero (Juan David Borrero) and Chloe D. Conwell, great-granddaughter Mia Victoria Borrero, great nieces and nephews Dorianna, Trevor, Isaac and Brian Gardner, and lifelong friends Andrew Epps of Richmond, Andrew Evans of Washington D.C., and Mary Ames, originally of Alexandria. He was preceded in death by parents, Courtland and Lottie Olphin Robinson, his brother and sister-in-law, Courtland and Margetta Robinson, and his first wife, Rose Robinson Roberts of Columbia, Maryland.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests gifts be sent to Robinson's undergraduate college, Virginia Union University in Richmond or to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A celebration of Robinson’s life will be held in the coming weeks near his California home.