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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name= Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson |office=Louisiana State Representative<br>for District 11 (Claiborne and parts of Bienville, Lincoln, and Union pari..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative<br>for District 11 (Claiborne and parts of Bienville, Lincoln, and Union parishes)]]
|term_start=January 1992
|term_end=August 1, 2000
|preceded=Kenneth Volentine
|succeeded=Rick Gallo]
|birth_date=February 8, 1948
|birth_place=Grambling], incoln Parish, Louisiana, [[United States|USA]]
|death_date=August 1, 2000 (aged 52)
|death_place=[[Bossier City,]], Louisiana
|spouse=Presumed [[divorce]]d from John Barabin, Sr.
|children=John Barabin, Jr.
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=Grambling State University<br>
[[Ohio University]]<br>
Southern University ([[Baton Rouge]])<br>
[[Tulane University]]}}
'''Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson''' (February 8, 1948 – August 1, 2000) was an [[African American]] state representative from her native Grambling, a largely black communty west of [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], [[Louisiana]], who served from 1992 until her death in a six-vehicle traffic accident on Interstate 20 in [[Bossier City]], Louisiana.<ref name=polgr>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/wilfley-wilkin.html|title=Political Graveyard|publisher=politicalgraveyard.com|accessdate=December 28, 2019}}</ref>
Wilkerson was particularly involved in the areas of health care and [[rural]] development. Her District 11 included Claiborne and portions of Bienville, Lincoln, and Union parishes. The district was especially created after the 1990 [[census]] to guarantee an African American voter majority.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.llbc.louisiana.gov/llbc_history.htm|title=Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus|publisher=llbc.louisiana.gov|accessdate=September 26, 2007; no longer on-line}}
==Background==
Wilkerson graduated from the historically black Grambling State University laboratory high school and then the university itself. She received a [[master’s degree]] from Ohio University, a research institution in Athens in southeastern [[Ohio]], and then an [[L.L.B.]] degree from historically black Southern University in the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. She also obtained an L.L.M. in advanced legal studies at [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://house.legis.state.la.us/pubinfo/Press_Releases/wilkerson_auto_accident.htm|title=State Rep. Wilkerson Killed in Auto Accident|date=August 1, 2000|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
From 1981 to 1984, she was an assistant professor at her ''alma mater,'' the Southern University Law School. Thereafter, she was an assistant district attorney and an assistant state attorney general. While in the legislature, she continued her law practice in Grambling, where she was active in civic affairs, having served on the Grambling Economic Development Task Force.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.louisiana.gov/boards/board_members.asp?board=81|title=Grambling Economic Development Task Force|publisher=legis.louisiana.gov|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
==Politics and elections==
Wilkerson won her House seat on the same day that [[Edwin Edwards]] returned to the Louisiana governorship for his fourth term in a ringing [[general election]] defeat of State Representative [[David Duke]], a former member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Wilkerson defeated the white one-term incumbent, state Representative Kenneth L. Volentine of Athens in Claiborne Parish. who had led in the first nonpartisan blanket [[primary]]. Volentine polled 6,150 (46.9 percent) to Wilkerson’s 4,358 (33.2 percent). Two other candidates held the remaining 20 percent of the vote.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 19, 1991.</ref> In the [[general election]] held on November 16, 1991, Wilkerson unseated Volentine, 8,590 (51.8 percent) to 7,992 (48.2 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, November 16, 1991.</ref>
In 1995, Wilkerson won a second term by defeating fellow African American Willie J. Young, 70-30 percent.<ref name=election>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 21, 1995.</ref> In that same election, her 1991 rival, Kenneth Volentine, was handily elected to the first of two terms as the Claiborne Parish [[sheriff]] of Claiborne Parish.<ref name=election/> In 1999, she defeated fellow Democrat Douglas R. Sapp, 80-20 percent, in a low-turnout election.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 23, 1999.</ref>
Wilkerson was an active national Democrat, having been a delegate to the 1996 [[Democratic National Convention]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], which renominated the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]]/[[Al Gore, Jr.|Gore]] ticket. She was killed two weeks prior to the start of the 2000 Democratic National Convention in [[Los Angeles]], [[California]]. She had been scheduled to be a delegate to that convention too,<ref name=polgr/> in which [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] Al Gore was nominated for the [[U.S. President|presidency] but subsequently defeated by the [[Moderate Republican]] [[George @. Bush]]].
==House service==
In the House, Wilkerson was the vice chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee and served on the Civil Law and Procedure and Judiciary committees. She was the first female chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Rural Caucus, having attained that position in 1997.<ref name=bio/>
Later Rural Caucus [[Gil Pinac]] of Crowley in Acadia Parish, a Democrat who later switched parties, described Wilkerson as an active member of the House, particularly on issues affecting rural areas: "Pinkie helped to keep us aware of the issues and the problems facing Louisiana, especially in the rural areas and those of the poor. And Pinkie was more than talk. She always followed through, introducing legislation and initiating projects to ensure that problems were exposed and discussed. She served as chair of the Rural Caucus Stroke Awareness and Cancer Awareness programs."<ref name=bio/>
Wilkerson was best known for her work on education and social issues. She initiated the Youth Academy 2000, by which children are afforded the opportunity to learn directly from professionals in such fields as [[mathematics]], science, computers, medicine, music, and entrepreneurship. She promoted awareness programs regarding [[diabetes]], [[cancer]], lupus, and cardiovascular disease. She introduced legislation to prohibit so-called "drive-through” mastectomies. She pushed to create an incentive program to reward those parishes with reduced rates of school dropout and teen pregnancy.<ref name=bio/>
In 1993, she succeeded in obtaining passage of a bill to establish a 24-hour statewide hot line for compulsive [[gambling|gamblers]], with the contact number placed in gambling establishments and on lottery tickets. That same year she succeeded in passing legislation to authorize courts to issue restraining and protective orders for abused parents. She also labored to include grandparents and grandchildren within the coverage of family violence programs.<ref name=bio/>
She pushed for street lights for the Interstate 20 exchange at Grambling State University, an accomplishment that came after her death through the intervention of Democratic [[U.S. Senator]] [[Mary Landrieu]], a Wilkerson political ally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gram.edu/news/update/udoct04(4).pdf|title=Pinkie Wilkerson’s vision of Grambling I-20 lighting system becomes reality|publisher=“GSU Update”, October 2004|accessdate=September 26, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref>
==Legacy==
Wilkerson has been honored by numerous groups. The African-American National Bar Association considers her to have been a role model for state legislators and presents an annual "Pinkie C. Wilkerson Outstanding State Legislator of the Year Award" to a deserving recipient.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalbar.org/legislativelaw/NBA_LD_Feb07.pdf|title=National Bar Association: Legislative Update|publisher=nationalbar.org|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
She is further honored through the establishment of the Pinkie C. Wilkerson Life Development Center, a non-profit organization in Grambling.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=1040795|title=Pinkie C. Wilkerson Life Development Center|publisher=taxexemptworld.com|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref> A short street in [[Gibsland, Louisiana|Gibsland]] in Bienville Parish, within her House district, is named for Wilkerson.
At the time of her death, then Louisiana House Speaker Charles W. DeWitt, Jr., described Wilkerson, accordingly: "{One] could define the term 'dedicated public servant' with two words—Pinkie Wilkerson. That is what she was. Her constituents came first and she worked tirelessly to see that they were represented. Sometimes [one] would get to work in the morning and find a message from Pinkie sent late the night before about a problem she was working on for her district. She was always on the job. Pinkie loved the House of Representatives. She was a loyal, active, extremely hard working member. It is difficult to accept her sudden and untimely death. I can speak for all of my colleagues in saying that she was a positive influence and will not be forgotten. . . . "<ref name=bio/>
Wilkerson was preceded in death by her mother. Her father, Calvin Wilkerson (1911–2000) of Grambling, died forty-five days after his daughter’s passing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 26, 2009; under pay wall}}</ref> In addition to a son, John Barabin, Jr., she had a sister and a brother.<ref name=bio/>
In a [[special election]] called to fill Wilkerson’s District 11 seat, victory went to another African American Democrat, Richard “Rick” Gallot, Jr. In 2007, Wilkerson’s sister, Delores Wilkerson Smith, failed in an effort to dislodge Gallot in the primary election, having received fewer than 17 percent of the ballots cast.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 20, 2007.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkerson, Pinkie}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
|name= Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Representative<br>for District 11 (Claiborne and parts of Bienville, Lincoln, and Union parishes)]]
|term_start=January 1992
|term_end=August 1, 2000
|preceded=Kenneth Volentine
|succeeded=Rick Gallo]
|birth_date=February 8, 1948
|birth_place=Grambling], incoln Parish, Louisiana, [[United States|USA]]
|death_date=August 1, 2000 (aged 52)
|death_place=[[Bossier City,]], Louisiana
|spouse=Presumed [[divorce]]d from John Barabin, Sr.
|children=John Barabin, Jr.
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=Grambling State University<br>
[[Ohio University]]<br>
Southern University ([[Baton Rouge]])<br>
[[Tulane University]]}}
'''Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson''' (February 8, 1948 – August 1, 2000) was an [[African American]] state representative from her native Grambling, a largely black communty west of [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], [[Louisiana]], who served from 1992 until her death in a six-vehicle traffic accident on Interstate 20 in [[Bossier City]], Louisiana.<ref name=polgr>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/wilfley-wilkin.html|title=Political Graveyard|publisher=politicalgraveyard.com|accessdate=December 28, 2019}}</ref>
Wilkerson was particularly involved in the areas of health care and [[rural]] development. Her District 11 included Claiborne and portions of Bienville, Lincoln, and Union parishes. The district was especially created after the 1990 [[census]] to guarantee an African American voter majority.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.llbc.louisiana.gov/llbc_history.htm|title=Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus|publisher=llbc.louisiana.gov|accessdate=September 26, 2007; no longer on-line}}
==Background==
Wilkerson graduated from the historically black Grambling State University laboratory high school and then the university itself. She received a [[master’s degree]] from Ohio University, a research institution in Athens in southeastern [[Ohio]], and then an [[L.L.B.]] degree from historically black Southern University in the capital city of [[Baton Rouge]]. She also obtained an L.L.M. in advanced legal studies at [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://house.legis.state.la.us/pubinfo/Press_Releases/wilkerson_auto_accident.htm|title=State Rep. Wilkerson Killed in Auto Accident|date=August 1, 2000|publisher=Louisiana House of Representatives|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
From 1981 to 1984, she was an assistant professor at her ''alma mater,'' the Southern University Law School. Thereafter, she was an assistant district attorney and an assistant state attorney general. While in the legislature, she continued her law practice in Grambling, where she was active in civic affairs, having served on the Grambling Economic Development Task Force.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.louisiana.gov/boards/board_members.asp?board=81|title=Grambling Economic Development Task Force|publisher=legis.louisiana.gov|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
==Politics and elections==
Wilkerson won her House seat on the same day that [[Edwin Edwards]] returned to the Louisiana governorship for his fourth term in a ringing [[general election]] defeat of State Representative [[David Duke]], a former member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Wilkerson defeated the white one-term incumbent, state Representative Kenneth L. Volentine of Athens in Claiborne Parish. who had led in the first nonpartisan blanket [[primary]]. Volentine polled 6,150 (46.9 percent) to Wilkerson’s 4,358 (33.2 percent). Two other candidates held the remaining 20 percent of the vote.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 19, 1991.</ref> In the [[general election]] held on November 16, 1991, Wilkerson unseated Volentine, 8,590 (51.8 percent) to 7,992 (48.2 percent).<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, November 16, 1991.</ref>
In 1995, Wilkerson won a second term by defeating fellow African American Willie J. Young, 70-30 percent.<ref name=election>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 21, 1995.</ref> In that same election, her 1991 rival, Kenneth Volentine, was handily elected to the first of two terms as the Claiborne Parish [[sheriff]] of Claiborne Parish.<ref name=election/> In 1999, she defeated fellow Democrat Douglas R. Sapp, 80-20 percent, in a low-turnout election.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 23, 1999.</ref>
Wilkerson was an active national Democrat, having been a delegate to the 1996 [[Democratic National Convention]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], which renominated the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]]/[[Al Gore, Jr.|Gore]] ticket. She was killed two weeks prior to the start of the 2000 Democratic National Convention in [[Los Angeles]], [[California]]. She had been scheduled to be a delegate to that convention too,<ref name=polgr/> in which [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] Al Gore was nominated for the [[U.S. President|presidency] but subsequently defeated by the [[Moderate Republican]] [[George @. Bush]]].
==House service==
In the House, Wilkerson was the vice chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee and served on the Civil Law and Procedure and Judiciary committees. She was the first female chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Rural Caucus, having attained that position in 1997.<ref name=bio/>
Later Rural Caucus [[Gil Pinac]] of Crowley in Acadia Parish, a Democrat who later switched parties, described Wilkerson as an active member of the House, particularly on issues affecting rural areas: "Pinkie helped to keep us aware of the issues and the problems facing Louisiana, especially in the rural areas and those of the poor. And Pinkie was more than talk. She always followed through, introducing legislation and initiating projects to ensure that problems were exposed and discussed. She served as chair of the Rural Caucus Stroke Awareness and Cancer Awareness programs."<ref name=bio/>
Wilkerson was best known for her work on education and social issues. She initiated the Youth Academy 2000, by which children are afforded the opportunity to learn directly from professionals in such fields as [[mathematics]], science, computers, medicine, music, and entrepreneurship. She promoted awareness programs regarding [[diabetes]], [[cancer]], lupus, and cardiovascular disease. She introduced legislation to prohibit so-called "drive-through” mastectomies. She pushed to create an incentive program to reward those parishes with reduced rates of school dropout and teen pregnancy.<ref name=bio/>
In 1993, she succeeded in obtaining passage of a bill to establish a 24-hour statewide hot line for compulsive [[gambling|gamblers]], with the contact number placed in gambling establishments and on lottery tickets. That same year she succeeded in passing legislation to authorize courts to issue restraining and protective orders for abused parents. She also labored to include grandparents and grandchildren within the coverage of family violence programs.<ref name=bio/>
She pushed for street lights for the Interstate 20 exchange at Grambling State University, an accomplishment that came after her death through the intervention of Democratic [[U.S. Senator]] [[Mary Landrieu]], a Wilkerson political ally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gram.edu/news/update/udoct04(4).pdf|title=Pinkie Wilkerson’s vision of Grambling I-20 lighting system becomes reality|publisher=“GSU Update”, October 2004|accessdate=September 26, 2009; no longer on-line}}</ref>
==Legacy==
Wilkerson has been honored by numerous groups. The African-American National Bar Association considers her to have been a role model for state legislators and presents an annual "Pinkie C. Wilkerson Outstanding State Legislator of the Year Award" to a deserving recipient.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalbar.org/legislativelaw/NBA_LD_Feb07.pdf|title=National Bar Association: Legislative Update|publisher=nationalbar.org|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref>
She is further honored through the establishment of the Pinkie C. Wilkerson Life Development Center, a non-profit organization in Grambling.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=1040795|title=Pinkie C. Wilkerson Life Development Center|publisher=taxexemptworld.com|accessdate=September 26, 2009}}</ref> A short street in [[Gibsland, Louisiana|Gibsland]] in Bienville Parish, within her House district, is named for Wilkerson.
At the time of her death, then Louisiana House Speaker Charles W. DeWitt, Jr., described Wilkerson, accordingly: "{One] could define the term 'dedicated public servant' with two words—Pinkie Wilkerson. That is what she was. Her constituents came first and she worked tirelessly to see that they were represented. Sometimes [one] would get to work in the morning and find a message from Pinkie sent late the night before about a problem she was working on for her district. She was always on the job. Pinkie loved the House of Representatives. She was a loyal, active, extremely hard working member. It is difficult to accept her sudden and untimely death. I can speak for all of my colleagues in saying that she was a positive influence and will not be forgotten. . . . "<ref name=bio/>
Wilkerson was preceded in death by her mother. Her father, Calvin Wilkerson (1911–2000) of Grambling, died forty-five days after his daughter’s passing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi|title=Social Security Death Index|publisher=ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com|accessdate=September 26, 2009; under pay wall}}</ref> In addition to a son, John Barabin, Jr., she had a sister and a brother.<ref name=bio/>
In a [[special election]] called to fill Wilkerson’s District 11 seat, victory went to another African American Democrat, Richard “Rick” Gallot, Jr. In 2007, Wilkerson’s sister, Delores Wilkerson Smith, failed in an effort to dislodge Gallot in the primary election, having received fewer than 17 percent of the ballots cast.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 20, 2007.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkerson, Pinkie}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]