Helen Elizabeth Trower, 83, of Charles City | Williamsburg Yorktown Daily wydaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wydaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CHARLES CITY COUNTY — Harold Vance Charity, Sr., 75, of Charles City County, entered eternal rest on January 4, 2022. He was preceded in death by his parents…
William Lester Banks was born in Lunenburg County, the son of William Walter Banks and Daisy Hill Banks. He had at least one sister. Banks attended public schools in Alderson in Greenbrier County and in Bluefield, both in West Virginia, and graduated from Bluefield State College with a major in physical science. From 1935 to 1941 he taught school and served as a principal in Halifax County. Later he became principal of Ruthville High School for African American students in Charles City County. On December 23, 1940, he married Vera Louise Bowman, of Charlotte County. They had one daughter.
Banks served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and saw action in the Pacific. He began fighting for civil rights shortly before entering the army. In 1943, when he was a principal in Charles City County, he approached Oliver White Hill, an attorney working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), about the feasibility of filing suit to require th