Wyatt Tee Walker oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Richmond, Virginia, 2014 July 09.
Walker, Wyatt Tee, interviewee.
Walker, Theresa Ann, interviewee.
Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer.
Bishop, John Melville, videographer.
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.)
moving image
Filmed interviews. lcgft
Interviews. lcgft
Oral histories. lcgft
Video recordings. lcgft
eng
Dr. Walker reflects on his involvement in the freedom movement, especially his work as Martin Luther King's chief of staff and as the Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) from 1960-1964. He recalls helping to organize the Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama, and supporting Dr. King in transcribing and publishing "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." He also remembers preaching in Petersburg, Virginia, and Harlem, New York, and becoming involved in several later movements, including anti-apartheid and pro-charter schools activism. Towards the end of the interview, his wife, Theresa Ann Walker, joins him on camera to talk briefly about her experiences in the movement.
Recorded at Wyatt Tee Walker's home in Richmond, Virginia, on July 9, 2014.
Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0109), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
Wyatt Tee Walker, African American pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was educated at Virginia Union University, B.S. in chemistry and physics and the Virginia Union Graduate School of Theology. He was a chief of staff for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 1958 became an early board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He helped found a Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) chapter in 1958. As executive director of the SCLC from 1960 to 1964, Walker helped to bring the group to national prominence.
The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
Finding aid
Walker, Wyatt Tee--Interviews.
Walker, Theresa Ann--Interviews.
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968.
Congress of Racial Equality.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963 : Washington, D.C.)--Personal narratives.
African American civil rights workers--United States--Interviews.
African American clergy--Interviews.
African Americans--Segregation.
African American women civil rights workers--United States--Interviews.
Albany Movement (Albany, Ga.)
Civil rights demonstrations--Virginia--Petersburg.
Civil rights movements--Alabama--Birmingham.
Civil rights movements--Georgia.
Civil rights movements--New York.
Civil rights movements--Tennessee.
Civil rights movements--United States.
Nonviolence--United States.
Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, Tenn., 1968.
Social justice--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Birmingham (Ala.)--Race relations.
Petersburg (Va.)--Race relations.
Civil Rights History Project collection
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0109
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