Wyatt Tee Walker
Wyatt Tee Walker | |
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Born | August 16, 1928 Peace Movement |
Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom |
Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 – January 23, 2018) was an African-American pastor, national
Walker started as pastor at historic
Biography
Virginia
Walker was born in
Walker's led two major civil rights organizations in Virginia: he served as president for five years of the Petersburg branch of the
Through these years Walker became increasingly close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement and later served as his chief of staff. In 1957 Walker helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).[6] In 1958 King chose Walker for the board of SCLC.[2][7] Walker spent the next two years building the organization in Virginia by capitalizing on his network of relationships with clergy throughout the state from his activities with NAACP and CORE.[2] He also continued demonstrations and actions intended to highlight, challenge and end segregation.
Atlanta, Georgia
External videos | |
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“Eyes on the Prize; Interview with Wyatt Tee Walker” conducted in 1985 for the Eyes on the Prize documentary in which he discusses his participation in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. |
At King's invitation, Walker moved to Atlanta as the SCLC's first full-time executive director. During his leadership of 1960–1964, he brought the organization to "national power" in its efforts to bring about an end to legal segregation of African Americans.[8] A strong manager, Walker (assisted by Dorothy Cotton and James Wood brought from the PIA) improved administration and fundraising, and coordinated the staff's far-ranging activities.[2]
Walker preached "dazzling sermons" to support the student sit-ins that sparked the second phase of civil rights organizing after 1960.
From 1964 to 1966 Walker worked with a new publishing venture, the Negro Heritage Library, which he headed as president in 1966. He worked with school boards and systems to expand curricula to improve coverage of African-American history and literature, and to add appropriate books to school libraries.[2]
Harlem, New York
As a new Pastor in Harlem, Walker learned all that he knew and sat at the feet of his mentor Reverend Dr. BG Crawley Pastor and founder of the Little Zion Baptist Church, who was a Baptist Minister and New York State Judge in Brooklyn New York.
In 1967 Walker was called as senior pastor of the influential Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in
During the 1970s Walker served as Urban Affairs Specialist to Gov.
Walker was increasingly active in the anti-apartheid movement, which had a strong base in the African-American community. In 1978 he founded the International Freedom Mobilization to draw attention to the abuses of apartheid in South Africa.
In 1988, during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle Walker helped co-found the Religious Action Network (RAN) of the ACOA, together with Canon
Walker also used the church's leadership in local economic and community development, writing about their efforts in The Harvard Paper: The African-American Church and Economic Development (1994). He was chair of the Central Harlem Local Development Corporation, to generate affordable housing units in Harlem to fill a critical need.
Because of Walker's leading role in the
Since college, Walker has been a member of the Gamma chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[12]
Return to Virginia
After 37 years as senior pastor, Walker retired in 2004 with the title of pastor emeritus of Canaan Baptist Church. He spent his final years in Virginia and taught at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at his alma mater Virginia Union University in Richmond.
Public education reform and charter schools
Frustrated by the perpetual failure of the traditional public schools in Harlem and other underserved neighborhoods, Walker helped organize the passage of New York State's charter school law in 1998.
In 1999, he joined with businessman-philanthropist Steve Klinsky to found the first ever charter school in New York State, now named the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem in honor of Walter Sisulu (Nelson Mandela's ally) and Dr. Walker. This school was one of just three New York charter schools to open in the law's first year of 1999, and is the only one from that year to survive. The school is community-run and has substantially outperformed the traditional public schools in Harlem's District 5, where most of the school's students live. The founding and history of Sisulu-Walker was described in the book "A Light Shines In Harlem" by Mary Bounds, which won the Phillis Wheatly Prize for best non-fiction work in 2015. Walker wrote the foreword for that book.[13]
Walker continues to support charter school reform from his home in Virginia. In 2016, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Charter School Alliance. This award had only been given once before: to President Bill Clinton.
In September 2016, Walker gave an exclusive interview to RealClearLife.com where he stressed his support for charter schools as a key civil rights issue of our time, and where he stated his strong belief that Dr. King would have supported charter schools as well.[14]
Opposition to critical race theory
In September 2015, Walker wrote an essay for
Personal life and death
Walker married Theresa Ann Walker in December 1950.[7] They had four children together.[16] Walker died on January 23, 2018, at his home in Chester, Virginia, aged 89.[17]
Selected books
Walker had an ongoing interest in the relationship between music, the black religious tradition, and social change, and published several books on this topic. This topic was also the center of his doctoral work for his PhD in 1975.[18] These include:
- 1979 – Somebody's Calling My Name: Black Sacred Music and Social Change (Judson Press)
- 1984 – The Soul of Black Worship: A Trilogy – Preaching, Praying, Singing (Self-published)
- 1985 – Road to Damascus: A Journey of Faith, New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press
- 1986 – Common Thieves: A Tithing Manual for Christians and Others, New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press
- 1991 – Gospel in the Land of the Rising Sun, New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press
- 1994 – The Harvard Paper: The African-American Church and Economic Development, New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press
- 1997 – A Prophet from Harlem Speaks: Sermons & Essays, New York: Martin Luther King Fellows Press
Legacy and honors
- Honorary doctorates from Virginia Union University and Princeton University
- 1993 – Ebony magazine named Rev. Dr. Walker as one of "The 15 Greatest Black Preachers".
- 2005 – The Sisulu Children's Academy—Harlem Public Charter School was renamed the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem, in honor of his community leadership.
- 2007, students in Norfolk, Virginia produced and performed a show entitled Walking with Walker.
- 2008, Walker was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.[18]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Raymond Arsenault, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, p.115
- ^ a b c d e f "Wyatt Tee Walker". King Encyclopedia. Stanford University. Archived from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2008.
- ^ Frederic O. Sargent, Bill Maxwell, The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955–1968, Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2004, p.163
- ^ Martin Luther King, Clayborne Carson, Peter Holloran, et al., The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, p.463
- ^ Arsenault (2006), Freedom Riders, p. 115
- ^ "Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker", Civil Rights Digital Library, accessed January 1, 2009
- ^ a b c d e "Inventory of the Wyatt Tee Walker Papers, 1963–1982, n.d.", Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, 2000, accessed December 31, 2008
- ^ a b c d Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon, "Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker", Rhetoric, Religion and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1965, Baylor University Press, 2006, p.533, accessed December 31, 2008
- ^ David Garrow, ed., Birmingham, Alabama, 1956–1963: The Black Struggle for Civil Rights, Carlson Publishing, 1989, pp. 176–177
- ^ Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. "Wyatt Tee Walker". Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- ^ Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Alumni, Virginia Union University, accessed January 1, 2009
- ^ "Wyatt Tee Walker" Archived July 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Prominent Alphas, Religious Leaders, Website of Alpha Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha, accessed December 31, 2008
- ^ "Reviews". www.alightshinesinharlem.com. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
- ^ "Would Martin Luther King Have Supported Charter Schools?". RealClearLife. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
- ^ Wyatt Tee Walker; Steve Klinsky (September 24, 2015). "A Light Shines in Harlem". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
- ^ "About Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker", Wyatt Tee Walker Website, accessed January 1, 2009
- ^ Schudel, Matt (January 23, 2018). "Wyatt Tee Walker, civil rights leader and top assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 89". The Washington Post.
Wyatt Tee Walker was born Aug. 16, 1928, in Brockton, Mass. (His family said most biographical information about him incorrectly gives his year of birth as 1929.)
- ^ a b "Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker" Archived May 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, International Civil Rights Walk of Fame Inductees, Official Website, accessed December 30, 2008
Further reading
- Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988
- Charles D. Lowery and John F. Marszalek, eds. Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Present, New York: Greenwood Press, 1992
External links
- "Wyatt Tee Walker", King Encyclopedia, Stanford University
- Wyatt Walker's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- The short film OPEN MIND Special: Race Relations in Crisis 6/12/63 - 11/13/92 (1963/1992) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- Who Speaks for the Negro Vanderbilt documentary website