As an activist, Reid forced Petersburg Hospital in the early 1960s to stop segregating patients. He was arrested for eating in the whites-only area of a Petersburg bus terminal cafe. He also played a key role in the desegregation of the city library.
Reid was a friend and compatriot of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and started the Virginia chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization co-founded by King. He served 42 years on the national board of the SCLC.
After graduating high school, he joined the Army and became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. He attended Fayetteville State Teachers College and transferred to Virginia Union University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in history. He also received his master of divinity degree in theology from VUU.
From 1957 to 1966, he was the pastor of First Baptist Church on Harrison Street in Petersburg. After meeting the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker and the Rev. R.G. Williams, he soon became a key figure in the local civil rights movement. When Walker, Williams, and three local students for trespassing at Petersburg’s segregated public library in March 1960, Reid called for a prayer vigil with 200 people on the courthouse steps.
