Roanoke’s four quadrants reveal a deep and persistent divide. 

While legal segregation ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its legacy continues to shape cities and their neighborhoods across the country. In Roanoke, access to education, job opportunities and even how long you live can look vastly different depending on the ZIP code you were born in. Just a few miles apart, life in Roanoke can often feel worlds away. 

In this new Q&A series, The Rambler invites members of the community to reflect on what it means to live in a divided city. By sharing perspectives across generations, backgrounds and quadrants, we hope to spark honest conversations that are too often left unspoken. 

This month, we spoke with Theresa Gill-Walker, a longtime Northwest Roanoke resident and activist for Evans Spring. Gill-Walker grew up in Covington before moving to Roanoke as a teenager in the 1970s. After nearly two decades living and organizing in the Northeast, Gill-Walker returned home to care for her mother — and to rejoin grassroots efforts in her community. 

From pushing for gun reform to resisting environmental and economic threats in Northwest, Gill-Walker has dedicated her return to Roanoke to community action. Today, she continues to advocate for protecting Evans Spring, the largest remaining tract of undeveloped land in the city. For Gill-Walker and many others, resisting development there is about more than preservation — it’s about preventing a painful history from repeating itself.

Sitting in front of the home her mother bought more than 50 years ago, Gill-Walker reflected on the Roanoke she grew up in, the one she came back to and the one she hopes to see in the future. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. If you or someone you know is interested in being interviewed for this series, please reach out to sinclair@roanokerambler.com.

For anyone who might not know you, tell us your name and a little bit about yourself. 

My name is Theresa Gill-Walker. I'm a long time resident of Roanoke, Virginia, and a graduate of William Fleming High School, class of ’78. 

I grew up in a small town, in Covington, and then moved to Roanoke when I was 15. I left home at 21 and went to the Big Apple, stayed between New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. I stayed up north for 21 years, and was doing very well — very politically and community involved. But one day, I was riding down the road and God said, “Come home,” and I was like, “Yeah right.” But six years later, he said it again, and I said, “Yes, sir.” So I came back in 2002.

I'm very involved. I'm very involved in my church. I used to belong to Loudoun Avenue — great church. I now belong to Sweet Union — great church. Moving back home, I have to say, I was immensely pleased with how far Roanoke has come. 

And a lot of people say, “Oh, Roanoke got this wrong. Roanoke got that wrong.” Well, I've lived in a lot of places, and I've got to say: Go live in a few other places, and come home and see how you like it. A lot of people who put Roanoke down, I can tell they've never left. They've stayed in their bubble. They haven't opened up their bubble. Because even if you've been in Roanoke all your life, if you open up your bubble, Roanoke is very diverse and the communities are interacting with each other.

What makes Roanoke different from the other cities you’ve lived in over the years?

When I moved back home I saw what was going on — I saw the diversity, and I saw people standing up, trying to make a difference. Like, you know, Moms Demand Action, I became a big part of that, working with people who were in charge. And we would go to Richmond every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and fight for better gun control. And over the years, we've made a difference, you know, and I'm very proud of that. 

And I think that's something that I'm very proud of Roanoke for. Roanoke has no qualms about supporting the right cause. When it comes to being a decent human being, when you embrace the true meaning of loving your fellow man, I see Roanokers embracing that from every walk of life. 

We have an excellent City Council that cares about the community, so that our voices can be heard. We can call them up and say, “Can I sit down and talk with you?” And you can tell that they are truly listening, truly have empathy. For the first time since I've lived at home, this is the first City Council that I truly feel safe and comfortable with. They respect our concerns and wishes regarding Evans Spring. So I'm very, very excited and pleased with the way the city of Roanoke has embraced our City Council, and with the way the City Council is embracing the needs and concerns of their citizens. They're new. They're learning, but I'm very confident in working with them.

Having lived in Roanoke over the decades, what does segregation mean to you?

I first moved home and I had a bunch of friends who were white, and they would come up to my cookouts. In the beginning, they were apprehensive about coming to Northwest Roanoke, and I couldn't figure out why. But then I realized that out of everything negative that was happening in Roanoke, it would hit the press if it was in Northwest. But you know, reading the other articles, talking to people going around every community, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, rich or poor — everyone has their issues.

And I really think that one of the major issues with segregation is people staying separate so you don't get to know someone. You don't get to know that that's not the culture. And if we interacted more with each other, and we lived next to each other and loved and helped each other, we would notice that we have more in common than not. And I think with segregation, I think there are people who have power and control that work at keeping it separate. Because they know if we come together, we’re unstoppable.

When it comes to segregation, Roanoke has its all-Black neighborhoods, its all-white neighborhoods, but that is changing more so in the Black neighborhoods, which is making us afraid of gentrification. You know, it's been documented time and time again how I could go for a house, and you could go for a house, and you would get it, and I wouldn't — even if I could have better credit than you, I could have better savings than you — because I'm Black and you're white. And that is one of the fears that we have in our community.

That is definitely one of my concerns, because this neighborhood was all Black, but it's very much diversified, which I don't have problem with, but I don't want to see the heritage lost that was created through the residents of Northeast losing their homes, coming over here and restarting and now losing their homes again.

Tell me about your advocacy with Friends of Evans Spring. For someone who might not know, can you describe the issue and what you’re fighting for? When and why did you first get involved? 

I got involved in 2013 when they were talking about doing development at Evans Spring, which would have sent our taxes through the roof. But we were saying to the city, this isn't right, you know. And it's the only undeveloped land in the city of Roanoke. 

I felt like they were trying to prepare to take our land. Everybody's house prices were going up, immensely. Mine went up, went down, went up, went down.

But in 2020 the Planning Commission said, you know, this [development] plan you have, it isn't good. We're voting it down. And I just cried. I was so excited, like, “Yes! We’re done!” — not realizing that it was just put to the side. 

So when it came back on the table again we were like, “What? Evans Spring? Back again?” And we all jumped back on board. But I feel like this time around shows you the difference in how Roanoke has grown race-wise. In 2013, we were all Black people. This time, there’s just as many white people fighting for Evans Spring, who do not even live in Northwest, as there is Black people, bringing resources and knowledge and skills that we did not have last time. 

It became more evident that the second time around, this wasn't just about eminent domain and preserving the neighborhood. This was about saving Roanoke because on an environmental level, if the land owners were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do, the flooding would be worse than in 1985. So this time around, we were supported more by the community.

What are your hopes for the future of Evans Spring? 

Our hopes are for it to be a kind of sanctuary, with maybe some trails. Our hopes are that once this is resolved, it will be done in a way that it won't come up again, the land will not be used for development.

A sanctuary for Evans Spring, oh gosh — when you think about all of the colleges in the area that could be using that on a scientific, ecological scale. You think about the health of the community, because you won't be increasing the heat index. I see that kind of future for Evans Spring. I see the field trips with the fourth graders, coming back with the little tadpoles and watching them grow in the classroom. And, you know, I see us having people who are familiar with Evans Spring doing tours, explaining the whole beauty and necessity of Evans Spring. Explaining, “This is Lick Run, this is where Roanoke started.” You know, that’s the kind of future I see. 

And what do you see in Roanoke’s future, overall? 

I know Roanoke has to grow, and I accept and embrace that, but I look forward to Roanoke growing in a positive way — continuing to embrace diversity and look out for the disadvantaged. We are an unusual country, that we are a mixture of everything culture-wise, food-wise, music-wise. And I see Roanoke embracing that. You know, we've got the Harrison Museum, Melrose Plaza.

There are people who complain about Roanoke and complain about Northwest and complain about Southeast and complain… Well, okay. You see what's wrong with it — get out there and make a difference. Create a neighborhood watch. Talk to your neighbors. Throw a cookout and invite everybody so everybody can get to know each other.

So we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I know that we're going to make a difference. I know that we're going to be one of those cities where we’ll have seminars and people come from all over to say, “How did y'all do this? Teach us how you did it.” Because you can bring your community up, you can bring your neighborhoods up without gentrification, without kicking people out, without making it unaffordable. So our young people will stay here and can afford to live here.You can do all of that, and we're going to be the city to show everybody how to do it. Because I believe in Roanoke, I really do.

I'm very proud of Roanoke. I'm very proud to say I'm from Roanoke.