Walker started as pastor at historic Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, where he entered the Civil Rights Movement. For 37 years Dr. Walker was Senior Pastor at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem, New York, where he also co-founded the Religious Action Network of Africa Action to oppose apartheid in South Africa, and chaired the Central Harlem Local Development Corporation.
Walker's leadership extended to two major civil rights organizations in Virginia: he served as president for five years of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and as state director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which he co-founded in 1958. Walker was also a founder of the Petersburg Improvement Association (PIA), modeled after the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) in Alabama. It worked to develop strategies against segregation and to ensure publicity for its activities. By May 1960 the PIA had 3,000 members. By conducting sit-ins in 1960 at the Trailways bus terminal, Walker and PIA members gained agreement by the president of the Bus Terminal Restaurants to desegregate lunch counters in Petersburg and several other Virginia cities. This was achieved before Freedom Riders arrived in 1961.
Through these years Walker became increasingly close to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. He later served as his Chief of Staff. In 1957 Walker helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1958 King chose Walker for the board of SCLC. 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. He also worked on continuing demonstrations and actions intended to highlight, challenge and end segregation.
"According to historian Taylor Branch, Walker preached 'dazzling sermons' in support of the student sit-ins that sparked the second phase of civil rights organizing after 1960." In addition, Walker was the chief strategist and tactician for "Project C". He developed the detailed plan for confrontation with local police and city officials that was the heart of the Birmingham Campaign in 1963. Assisted by local movement secretary Lola Hendricks, Walker meticulously researched protest targets, timed the walking distance from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, headquarters for the campaign, to the downtown area; surveyed the segregated lunch counters of department stores; and listed federal buildings as secondary targets should police block the protesters' entrance into primary targets such as stores, libraries, and all-white churches. He ensured the campaign would receive national attention and build support for the cause. The events captured important national media attention and coverage. This was critical for gaining national support among American citizens and the Kennedy administration for the movement and its goals. Walker also helped organize and participated in the 1963 March on Washington. In 1964 and 1965 he could celebrate the movement's successes when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
From 1964-1966 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.
During the 1970s Walker served as Urban Affairs Specialist to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, helping advise in a volatile social environment. In 1975 he managed to complete his doctorate at Colgate Rochester Divinity School. In his graduate studies and research, Walker also studied at the University of Ife in Nigeria and the University of Ghana. During these years in Harlem, he wrote and published books on the relation of music and social movements, and community development.
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. He served on the National Committee on the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) (since 2001 called Africa Action). In the 1980s he served on the ACOA Board, including as President.
In 1988 Walker was co-founder of the Religious Action Network (RAN) of the ACOA, together with Canon Frederick B. Williams of the Church of the Intercession in Harlem. This was during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. RAN is a network of over 300 congregations throughout the U.S.
Walker also used the church's leadership in local economic and community development. He wrote about that 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 Civil Rights Movement, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library collected his papers from the period of 1963-1982. They include both personal and official correspondece, papers and lectures on a wide variety of topics, and are available for research.
Since college, Walker has been a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Category:1929 births Category:Living people Category:Anti-apartheid activists Category:African American history Category:African American religious leaders Category:Baptist ministers from the United States Category:Baptist writers Category:Nonviolence advocates Category:20th-century African-American activists
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