Wyatt Tee Walker addressing a crowd

'One of the keenest minds of the nonviolent revolution'

February 22, 2022

Research & Innovation

Telegram from JFK

Historic papers and memorabilia

The collection includes a letter from King to Walker about the 1959 Pilgrimage of Prayer to desegregate schools, a telegram from President John F. Kennedy inviting Walker to the White House, and his wife Theresa Ann Walker’s tin cup from her 1961 arrest in Mississippi as a Freedom Rider.

I was just a participant in what I think was the unfinished revolution of 1776. I feel a sense of fulfillment that I had a key role in desegregating America. 

The Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker
AP Photo

Recordings from the Civil Rights Movement  

The collection includes recordings of mass meetings from the Birmingham Campaign in 1963. The Birmingham Campaign, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Walker directed, put a spotlight on desegregation efforts in Birmingham, Alabama.

Listen to an audio clip of  Walker speaking during the campaign below and you can hear the tapes online.

Writings  

Walker donated written notes and manuscript copies of speeches and writings, including drafts of some book chapters and his work both in the church and in the civil rights movement. Among these writings is an unpublished biography of King.

“Because this manuscript was never published, we may hold the only extant copy of a work closely reviewing the life of one of the greatest civil rights leaders in U.S. history, written by one of his closest friends and advisors,” said Taylor McNeilly, the processing and reference archivist who works closely with the Walker Collection. “This work is entirely unprecedented, and its potential for research into both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Walker cannot be overestimated.”

Walker speaking in a church

Sermons

The library also hosts recordings of sermons Walker gave during his time at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem. The project making the recordings available online is ongoing, but the full set can be listened to on-site at the Rare Book Room in Boatwright Library. 

Oral history

The University in summer 2016 conducted interviews with Walker and his wife Theresa Ann to create an oral history. The sessions total about 2 1/2 hours, and a transcript is available for each recording online. 

“This is particularly poignant as we believe the oral history was Dr. Walker’s final recorded interview before his passing,” McNeilly said.

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Let Wyatt handle this
"From the very beginning, we knew that the key to making the change was the right to vote because we were shut out of the political system," said The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Martin Luther King Jr.'s chief of staff from 1960 to 1964. Walker donated his papers and other artifacts to Richmond.