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Arlington Public Library

Taking a Stand / Speaking Out

Charles Rinker: Speaking Out

A Tireless Proponent for Fair and Affordable Housing

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Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change. 

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Charles Rinker

Charles Rinker (1940-2015) was a tireless proponent for fair and affordable housing in Arlington County. His reach also extended to Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax County in Virginia as well as Montgomery County and Baltimore in Maryland.

His ability to meld economic savvy with public advocacy and popular sentiment made him a powerful and highly effective presence in organizations he helped found and establish such as AHC, Inc. (Arlington Housing Corp.), Arlington New Directions Coalition, A-HOME (Arlington Home Ownership Made Easier), TOAC (Tenants of Arlington County) and BRAVO (Buyer and Renters Arlington Voice).

Never reluctant to confront institutional resistance, Rinker’s ethos could perhaps best be summarized by his statements:

“If private profit is made in such a way as it deprives others in the society of the necessities of life—food, shelter, clothing, health, etc.—then it’s wrong, no matter what face one tries to put on it.”

“Ultimately we need more than the criticism of friends and neighbors to deter the displacement of low-and-moderate income households…but moral indignation from the community would be a good start.”

TOAC (Tenants of Arlington County) pamphlet

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Portia Haskins: Taking a Stand

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Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change. 

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Portia Haskins

In 1965, Hall’s Hill/High View Park resident Portia Haskins filed suit against the Virginia Board of Elections and the Arlington County general registrar after learning she was required to re-register in order to vote in the upcoming election, despite having already paid her poll taxes in February and having registered for federal elections the previous year.

On April 1, 1966, in the case Portia A. Haskins v. Levin Nock Davis et al., a Federal District Court ruled in Haskins’ favor arguing that “[t]he provisions of Virginia’s dual voter registration…which treat persons who are registered only for federal elections differently from persons registered for all elections violate the equal protection laws of the 14th Amendment.” This landmark decision eliminated what was essentially a selectively administered and enforced poll tax imposed chiefly on African-American voters in Arlington County.

Photograph of Portia Haskins. Date of Photo Unknown.

Recent events have shown that progress is a process and part of an ongoing struggle.  Accomplishments both great and small are seldom an endpoint but are a constant series of steps forward which cannot be taken for granted.

Portia Haskins has recently completed and published a book on the history of Mt. Salvation Baptist Church.

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Dr. Roland Bruner: Taking a Stand

"He provided free medical services to the most disadvantaged in Arlington..."

Graphic image of a megaphone

Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change. 

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Dr. Roland Bruner

Dr. Roland Herman Bruner (1902-1978) was an obstetrician, lecturer, and the first African-American doctor to be hired by Arlington County’s Department of Health’s Prenatal Clinic in a time of bigotry, racism, and segregation.

Bruner received a Bachelor of Science degree from Howard University in 1928 and a Medical Degree in 1932. One of just 24 students to receive the offer of an internship at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington D.C., he joined the staff thereafter completing his internship.

On July 29, 1934, Bruner and his wife Georgia purchased a property in Green Valley/Nauck at 2018 S. Glebe Rd. where he opened a private practice specializing in obstetrics. This allowed African-American women to deliver children in Arlington rather than having to travel to the Freedmen’s Hospital in the District of Columbia. He bartered with patients and often provided free services to the most disadvantaged, even delivering babies at the homes of people turned away by a segregated medical establishment.

Dr. Bruner and a nurse perform an obstetrics exam for a patient at the Arlington County Department of Health, 1938. Image had the caption "Prenatal Clinic" under it in the 1938 Rural Health Conservation Scrapbook. Photo Source: RG 21, Records of the Arlington County Department of Health: 21-1-"1938"-9

In 1935 Bruner became a part-time member of the clinical faculty of Howard University College of Medicine, where he would serve until 1951. He became a notable lecturer in the fields of women’s health and prenatal care and in 1938 he became the first African-American doctor employed by Arlington County’s Department of Health’s Prenatal Clinic. Bruner also played a vital role in the establishment of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Arlington. With a private practice spanning 45 years from 1933-1978, Dr. Roland Herman Bruner served multiple generations in his community.

In 2001, Arlington Housing Corporation (AHC) purchased Dr. Bruner’s home from the Bruner family, renovating the property into a development comprising 7 townhomes known as Bruner Place. The home was relocated on the property.

Bruner's daughter, Dr. Denise E. Bruner, is a practicing physician in Arlington County specializing in bariatrics and anti-aging.

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