Walker Lewis
Kwaku Walker Lewis | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Barre, Massachusetts, U.S. | August 3, 1798
Died | October 26, 1856 Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. | (aged 58)
Resting place | Lowell Cemetery |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Lovejoy |
Children | Enoch Lovejoy Lewis Lydia Elizabeth Walker Lucy Minor Lewis Walker Lovejoy Lewis |
Parents | Peter P. Lewis Minor Walker |
Kwaku Walker Lewis
Family and personal history
Lewis was born on August 3, 1798, in Barre, Massachusetts, to Peter P. Lewis and Minor Walker Lewis. His full name was Kwaku Walker Lewis, named after his maternal uncle, Quock Walker also known as Kwaku Walker.[2] (Kwaku means "boy born on Wednesday" among the Akan people of Ghana.[3])
Lewis was one of nine children. He was raised in a prominent middle-class black family that valued education, activism and political involvement. As a young boy, Peter and Minor Lewis moved their family to Cambridge. Walker Lewis was a successful barber who owned residential and commercial building in Boston.
In March 1826, Lewis married Elizabeth Lovejoy (the
The Lewis family moved to
Community activism
Lewis and many of his siblings and their families were actively involved in the abolition and equal rights movement throughout Massachusetts and the
Freemasonry
While in Boston, Lewis was initiated into African Freemasonry about 1823, participating in Boston's African Lodge #459 (Prince Hall Freemasonry). In 1825, he became the sixth Master and a year later was its Senior Warden. After the African Lodge declared its independence from the Grand Lodge of London and became its own African Grand Lodge, Walker Lewis was the Grand Master of African Grand Lodge #1 for 1829 and 1830.[4]
Massachusetts General Colored Association
Around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Lovejoy in 1826, Lewis and Thomas Dalton helped organize the Massachusetts General Colored Association (MGCA), the first such all-black organization in the United States.
In 1829, the MGCA helped David Walker (no relation) to publish the radical, 76-page Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, which demanded unconditional and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the USA. Lewis arranged for the Boston printer who published the Articles for the African Grand Lodge, to print the controversial Appeal.[5]
African Humane Society
In 1831, Lewis served as President of the African Humane Society in Boston, which provided funeral expenses for the poor, assisted widows, built the African School in Boston. The African Humane Society also sponsored a "settlement project" for African Americans who wanted to emigrate to settle in Liberia. When the ship sailed in 1813 its manifest contained most of the members of Hiram Lodge No. 3 of Providence, Rhode Island (chartered by Grand Master Prince Hall of African Grand Lodge in 1797).[6]
Underground Railroad
In Lowell during the 1840s and 1850s, Lewis's home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. For some time, he sheltered
Walker's son, Enoch ran a used clothing store, mainly to assist escaping slaves to change their appearances with new and better clothing. Walker would cut and style their hair to assist in their disguise.
Conversion to Mormonism and later life
About 1842, Lewis, who had worshipped with the
Walker's first-born son, Enoch Lovejoy Lewis, also joined the church. On September 18, 1846, Enoch married a white Mormon woman, Mary Matilda Webster, in Cambridge.[8]
Bans against African Americans
After settling in the Salt Lake Valley in 1848, Brigham Young announced a ban that prohibited all men of black African descent from holding the priesthood.[10] In addition, he prohibited Mormons of African descent from participating in Mormon temple rites, such as the endowment or sealing. These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president Spencer W. Kimball.[11]
Attempt to live in Utah
Walker Lewis migrated to Utah to be with the main body of members of
Two months after Walker's arrival, Brigham Young lobbied for, and the
Walker Lewis left after six months the following spring, returning to Lowell. His
Lewis died on October 26, 1856, in Lowell of tuberculosis. He was buried in the family lot in the Lowell Cemetery.[14]
See also
References
- ^ Spelled Kwaku, Quacko, or Quaku
- ^ "The Quock Walker case: "Instructions to the Jury"". www.pbs.org. 1783. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ Newbell Niles Puckett, Black Names in America: Origins and Usage (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co.), pp. 197, 417-418, 422, and 433-444.
- ^ Connell O'Donovan, “The Mormon Priesthood Ban and Elder Q. Walker Lewis: ‘An Example for His More Whiter Brethren to Follow'.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 57-58.
- ^ Connell O'Donovan, “The Mormon Priesthood Ban and Elder Q. Walker Lewis: ‘An Example for His More Whiter Brethren to Follow'.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 26, 2006, p. 55.
- ^ Voorhis, Harold Van Buren (1949). Negro Masonry in the United States. New York: Henry Emerson. p. 34.
- ^ Martha Mayo, "Profiles in Courage: African Americans in Lowell", Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts Lowell, accessed 17 January 2011.
- ^ a b Aguirre, Michael (2007–2017). "Lewis, Q. Walker (1798–1856)". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
- ^ Bennett, Rick (2007–2017). "Kerr, Peter "Black Pete"". www.blackpast.org. BlackPast. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
- ^ "Race and the Priesthood". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
- Official Declaration—2.
- ^ Connell O'Donovan, “The Mormon Priesthood Ban and Elder Q. Walker Lewis: ‘An Example for His More Whiter Brethren to Follow'.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 90-91.
- ^ Connell O'Donovan, “The Mormon Priesthood Ban and Elder Q. Walker Lewis: ‘An Example for His More Whiter Brethren to Follow'.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 26, 2006, pp. 96-97.
- ^ "Kwaku Walker Lewis's Gravesite". www.findagrave.com. Find-A-Grave. 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
External links
- "Quock Walker Case: End of Slavery", Massachusetts Historical Society]
- "Quock Walker Case" Archived 2009-12-04 at the Wayback Machine, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- "Profiles in Courage: African Americans in Lowell" by Martha Mayo, Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts Lowell