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Walker, critic of US embargo on Cuba, dies at 80

The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 8, 2010; 4:24 PM

HAVANA -- The Rev. Lucius Walker, who led an annual pilgrimage of U.S. aid volunteers to Cuba in defiance of Washington's nearly half-century-old trade embargo, has died of a heart attack in New York. He was 80.

Walker, who died Tuesday, headed the nonprofit Pastors for Peace, which since 1992 has brought tons of supplies to Cuba via Mexico and Canada - everything from walkers and wheelchairs to computer monitors and clothing.

A statement on the New York City-based group's website expressed "immeasurable sadness" about "the passing of our beloved, heroic, prophetic leader, Rev. Lucius Walker Jr."

Walker led 21 relief trips to Cuba, the last of which was in July. Pastors for Peace violates the embargo by refusing to apply for permission to export to Cuba, instead traveling through third countries to deliver supplies donated by people in the U.S.

The organization is one of several that bring goods to Cuba in open defiance of the embargo, which took its current form in February 1962. Most are allowed to leave and return to the U.S. without incident, though some past participants have received letters threatening fines and other sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Walker was born Aug. 3, 1930, in Roselle, New Jersey. He graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1954, and earned a master of divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School four years later.

In addition to organizing supply missions, Walker was founding director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and negotiated an agreement with Cuban officials whereby dozens of American youngsters from poor areas can come to Cuba to study at Havana's Latin American School of Medicine.

As part of that program, American graduates are expected to return to the U.S., earn medical licenses and provide care in underserved communities.

Word of Walker's death was posted on the Cuban government website Cubadebate - where Fidel Castro publishes his frequent opinion columns - and carried on state-controlled television and radio and in newspapers.

The Communist Party daily Granma wrote, "Cubans, in gratitude, have to say that we don't want to think of a world without Lucius Walker."

Pastors for Peace said funeral arrangements had not immediately been made.

© 2010 The Associated Press

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Long before Lucius Walker Jr. made international headlines - including for humanitarian aid to Cuba and when shot by U.S.-backed contra forces in Nicaragua - he was a minister and civil-rights activist in Milwaukee.

Walker arrived in Milwaukee in the late 1950s while still a theology student, first serving as a youth director for the Milwaukee Christian Center on the south side. Before he was even ordained, he was called to serve by Hulburt Baptist Church, an all-white congregation, also on the south side. He went on to serve as the founding director of Northcott Neighborhood House.

"Lucius was the first African-American professional we know of who was assigned to work on the then-segregated south side of Milwaukee," said activist Art Heitzer, involved with the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba.

Walker was found dead Wednesday at his home in Demarest, N.J., likely after suffering a heart attack in his sleep. He was 80.

He was born in Roselle, N.J., earning his master of divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School. While in Milwaukee, he earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In his calm, steadfast way, Walker refused to walk away when he witnessed discrimination. When he took a group of boys to a local roller rink in the 1950s - and the white teens were allowed to enter but he wasn't - he filed a civil rights complaint.

When Walker witnessed an off-duty officer making an arrest in 1967 - and the situation became heated - he refused to move along as ordered. Instead, he was among those arrested and fought the charges.

Hundreds of local priests, ministers and nuns packed the courtroom in his support. His character witnesses included former Milwaukee Mayor Frank Zeidler and E. Michael McCann, then an assistant district attorney. Walker later won on appeal.

In 1967, he also accepted a new position in New York. Walker was named founding director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, an ecumenical group that works for peace and social justice.

"He was a gentle storm," said Thomas E. Smith, a Pittsburgh minister and board chairman of IFCO.

"He went about in his quiet methodical way, not raising his voice but making his point," Smith said. "He fought calmly and courageously. He deplored violence, and he always thought there was a peaceful way to deal with things."

In 1988, Walker was leading a humanitarian mission in Nicaragua when their Mission of Peace passenger boat was fired on by contra rebels. Two people were killed. Walker was one of dozens of people wounded in the attack.

"Shots were whizzing over our heads," he told the Milwaukee Sentinel. "I saw women and children hit by bullets. I think the bullet that went through my rear end also struck the shoulder of a woman standing near me. . . .  Blood was all over the place . . . people were screaming and bullets were ricocheting every which way."

His first thought after the attack was that "this is occurring because of . . . Reagan. He's sending arms over to these guys (the contras) and training them. I realized I was being attacked and facing death at the hands of my own government."

The attack inspired Walker to found Pastors for Peace as an IFCO project. The group continues to provide humanitarian aid to Central America and even assisted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In 1992, Walker led the first of 21 "Friendshipment" caravans of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to Cuba. He refused to seek official permission, instead sending aid through other countries, including Canada and Mexico.

When humanitarian aid was blocked, Walker resorted to long hunger strikes until the goods moved again.

Walker was mourned in Cuba media this week.

"Cubans, in gratitude, have to say that we don't want to think of a world without Lucius Walker," wrote the Communist Party daily Granma.

"He's one of the most respected American people, if not the most respected, in Cuba," Heitzer said.

He led his last mission to Cuba in July, again meeting with former President Fidel Castro. Walker still served as pastor of Salvation Baptist Church of New York.

Walker believed that for many in both the U.S. and poorer countries, things were not better.

"Let us not buy into the notion that the civil-rights goal has been achieved," Walker said in 1993. "It has not. We should not think that because we have a holiday for Martin Luther King, we have made it. That is a token." Read more >