In 1976 Roger was criminal justice faculty at Western Piedmont Community College in Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina when he decided to run for the North Carolina Senate. He was one of two senators elected from the 24th District (includes Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Mitchell, Watauga, and Wilkes counties) to the North Carolina Senate. The other senator, Donald Rayvaugh Kincaid was from Caldwell County. Roger was, at the time, the youngest (age 29) senator elected to serve in the senate. The first session of this General Assembly met from January 12 to July 1, 1977. The second session met from May 31 to June 16, 1978. Roger did not run for re-election and instead chose to continue his education while working.[3]
In 1978–1979, Roger worked for the U.S. Office for Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. He later taught at East Carolina University before working for the National School Boards Association, representing its interests before Congress and the White House.[4][1]
In the U.S. House of Representatives election of 2006 for the 5th Congressional District, the Democrats' top choice, popular Winston-Salem mayor Allen Joines, decided not to run. Joines later said that he didn't have the stomach for the kind of race he felt it would take to defeat the incumbent, Virginia Foxx.[5] Instead, the Democratic party chose Roger Sharpe to run. Foxx defeated Sharpe – 96,138 to 72,061 votes. Sharpe ran against her record of lack of support for Hurricane Katrina victims and military veterans, as well as his vision for greater support for education and social and economic justice for the 5th District constituents.[6]
He is the author of Ceremony of Innocence, a memoir of his life. He was executive producer of a PBS documentary, The Boy Who Heard Lincoln at Gettysburg, which commemorates the 150th Year of the Gettysburg Address.[4][7]
He was on the U.S. Capital staff and gave tours of the United States Capitol until 2013. He retired to Asheville, North Carolina.[1][4]
