The Woodson Center is saddened to announce the passing of its Founder and President, Robert L. Woodson, Sr., who died peacefully in his sleep on May 19, 2026 at the age of 89. The center issued the following statement in response:“Bob Woodson was more than the founder of an organization. He was a visionary and civil rights leader whose life transformed countless communities from the inside out. For more than six decades, his life’s work rested on a single, unwavering conviction: that the people closest to a problem are best positioned to solve it. That conviction shaped an entirely different way of understanding poverty, community, and the latent power of the people.
“Bob founded the Woodson Center in Washington, D.C., in 1981 to empower low-income communities to solve their own problems. Over four and a half decades, the Center has built a track record of supporting grassroots organizations, resulting in enduring gang truces, transformed schools, and revitalized neighborhoods led by the people who live and work in them.
“From his early days as a civil rights activist to his decades at the Woodson Center, Bob built a body of work that reframed how America thinks about poverty, race, and community. He stood steadfast for the nation’s founding values and virtues, including faith, hard work, personal responsibility, the foundational importance of healthy families and communities, and the ability of everyone to shun a victimhood mentality and become agents of their own uplift. Though he has been recognized with a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship, a Presidential Citizens Medal, and a shelf of award-winning books, his influence stretched far beyond any accolade. He has left behind a generation of leaders, revitalized neighborhoods, and a civil rights tradition centered on the people it was always meant to serve.
“Bob’s voice was heard across the country, and the influence he has had on the modern day civil rights movement and countless communities is immeasurable. Those who knew Bob best, however, understood that his greatest work was always personal. He didn’t just build an organization. He built relationships, and those relationships built a movement.
“The Woodson Center will continue to carry forward the mission Bob Woodson built, guided by the same principles, the same people, and the same belief that lasting change is always led from within.”
The Woodson Center board of directors has planned for succession for several years. Will Crossley will succeed Robert L. Woodson Sr. as President of the Woodson Center. The Center, with full board support, is looking forward to carrying on Bob’s legacy under the new leadership.
About the Woodson Center
The Woodson Center is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1981 by Robert L. Woodson, Sr. For 45 years, the Center has worked to empower indigenous leaders in troubled neighborhoods to address issues in their communities through initiatives that increase public safety, spur upward mobility, and inspire racial harmony in America. Its work is grounded in the conviction that the best solutions to neighborhood problems already exist within those neighborhoods. Learn more at woodsoncenter.org.
