- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Wyatt Tee Walker oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Richmond, Virginia, 2014 July 09
- Contributor to Resource:
- Walker, Wyatt Tee, interviewee
Walker, Theresa Ann, interviewee
Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer
Bishop, John Melville, videographer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2014
- Subject:
- 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 - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, 33.52066, -86.80249
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, New York, 43.00035, -75.4999
United States, Tennessee, 35.75035, -86.25027
United States, Virginia, City of Petersburg, 37.22793, -77.40193 - Medium:
- interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- 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.
In English.
Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005 - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0109
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
- Extent:
- 7 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (01:13:19) : digital, sound, color.
transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files. - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0109
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
