Sojourner Kincaid Rolle’s Life Celebrated at Memorial Service in Downtown Santa Barbara

Hundreds Gather on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Remember Poet Laureate, Educator, Activist, and Black History Archivist

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle | Credit: Stacey Byers

Every seat in every pew of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Santa Barbara was occupied for more than three hours Monday afternoon by those celebrating the exceptional life of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, who spent the past 40 years as Santa Barbara’s resident poet, playwright, author, producer, mediator, teacher, archivist of African-American history in Santa Barbara, witness for peace, moral mentor, and activist for human rights, civil rights, and women’s rights.

Rolle died at age 80 on November 13, 2023, from cancer, but her memorial service was scheduled for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an event Rolle had helped launch locally and kept afloat since 1988, when she first persuaded the Santa Barbara City Council to pass a proclamation recognizing the day. A representative from Congressmember Salud Carbajal announced a flag would fly in Rolle’s honor in the Capitol.

One longtime friend, Henry Brown, said of Rolle, “She could scream at you with a whisper,” while Santa Barbara school board member Wendy Sims-Moten — who called Rolle “Sister Traveler” and her “Forever Friend” — said, “Her words never tore you down, but rather they elevated you with a call to action.” Rolle’s husband of 40 years, photographer Rod Rolle, described how his wife taught creative writing at the Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo and poetry at Los Prietos Boys Camp, worked on the Rental Mediation Task Force, and produced the public access channel TV show Outrageous Women, to name a few things. On a typical day, he said, his wife got up and began working on various initiatives. “As soon as she could make phone calls, she was on the phone calling someone,” he recalled. “Just like that, every day. Every day.”