Wyatt Tee Walker enjoys an well established record as pastor/theologian, civil rights leader, and cultural historian. He is a double graduate of Virginia Union University (VUU Undergraduate Studies class of '50 and The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, '53), and holds a doctorate from Rochester Theological Center. His graduate studies and research have taken him to the University of Ife in Nigeria and the University of Ghana. An exhibiting artist as well as a composer of sacred music, Jesse Jackson has called him "Harlem's Renaissance Man" because of his multiple gifts and varied careers.
Widely traveled, he is regarded internationally as a human rights activist.
Wyatt was the first African-American to meet with Chairman Yasir Arafat since the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and Jericho, both occurrences underscoring his involvement as an antiapartheid activist and an advocate for Palestinian self-determination.
As a member of the international religious community, he has preached on every continent with the exception of Australia. He is a church historian and prolific author having published many books. He is also considered the nation's leading authority on the music of the African-American Church.
His work in civil and human rights brought him to the attention of a seminary friend, Martin Luther King, Jr. King installed Walker in Atlanta as the first full-time Executive Director of the fledgling SCLC in 1960. Under Walker's administration, SCLC grew into a national power in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
His experience in government was via ten years of service as Urban Affairs Specialist to Governor Nelson Rockefeller's troubleshooter, quieting racial tensions that accompanied school desegregation and labor disputes.
From his office in central Harlem, he proposed and gained approval for the Harlem State Office Building and convened a community advisory board that advised the Governor on the state agencies it should house.
In 1975, Wyatt Tee Walker joined the Board of Directors of Freedom National Bank and served for a decade during which time, he served three terms as Chairman of the Board of the nation's largest and most profitable minority-owned bank.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Tuesday, November 29th 2005 at 6:55PM
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