Research Catalog

Title

Charles D. Walker audio collection : 20 items.

Author

Walker, Charles D., 1903-

Publication

[1988]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Description

20 audiocassettes

Summary

The collection consists of 20 sound recordings documenting Walker's life and civic and church career.

Subjects

• Connecticut > Biography
• African American authors
• Civic leaders > Connecticut
• African Americans > Connecticut > Religion
• African American preaching
• African American clergy > Connecticut
• African American churches > Connecticut
• First Baptist Church (Milford, Conn.)
• Walker, Charles D., 1903-

Biography (note)

• The Reverend Charles D. Walker, pastor and civic leader in Milford, Connecticut, was born in 1903 in Triboro, North Carolina. Orphaned by his fourth birthday, he was raised by an uncle in Hampton, Virginia, where Walker received his public and secondary education. Setting out on his own at the age of fourteen, he eventually settled in the North, working as a butler and cook in Connecticut, New Jersey, and in New York City. In 1923 he received attention from The New York Herald Tribune, which published some of his poems and an article on Walker entitled “Negro Butler for Jersey family Takes Up Poetry as Side Line.” From the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Walker went from working as a butler for W. H. Wheelock to managing residential holdings in Harlem for Wheelock's Wall Street firm. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, Walker seems to have suffered a serious reversal of fortune; the scant evidence from his papers indicates only that Walker was in what he called his “wandering phase,” and that he left the Northeast, apparently settling in Washington, D.C. Returning to the Milford-New Haven area in the late 1940s, Walker worked for two aircraft firms; from 1961 to 1978, he worked as a personnel manager for the Hunt Pierce Corporation. Walker was a member of the Congregationalist Church until he was called to the ministry in 1958. Because the Congregationalists required their minister to attend seminary, and Walker, then 55 years old, felt he was prepared to begin his ministry immediately, he became a member of the Baptist Church, which did not require seminary training. In 1961, he became the pastor of Milford's First Baptist Church. Walker saw his role in the community as having both a spiritual and a civic aspect. In the latter role, he was involved in a wide variety of charitable and reform efforts in Milford, including leading the local Red Cross and seeking an end to discriminatory practices by lending institutions and real estate agencies. Following his belief that Northern cities also needed a civil rights movement, he issued a “Call to Conscience and Action” in Milford concurrent with the 1963 March on Washington. Walker continued his active role in the Milford community throughout the 1960s and 1970s, initiating a successful state-wide effort in 1976 to commemorate Connecticut's African American participants in the Revolutionary War, and building his congregation from 28 in 1961 to nearly 100 members at the time of his retirement in 1980.

Linking Entry (note)

• Forms part of: Charles D. Walker archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division (Sc MG 375). Photographs can be found in the Photographs and Prints Division.

Call Number

Sc MIRS Walker 1988-41

OCLC

1182543733

Author

Walker, Charles D., 1903- creator.

Title

Charles D. Walker audio collection : 20 items.

Publisher

[1988]

Biography

The Reverend Charles D. Walker, pastor and civic leader in Milford, Connecticut, was born in 1903 in Triboro, North Carolina. Orphaned by his fourth birthday, he was raised by an uncle in Hampton, Virginia, where Walker received his public and secondary education. Setting out on his own at the age of fourteen, he eventually settled in the North, working as a butler and cook in Connecticut, New Jersey, and in New York City. In 1923 he received attention from The New York Herald Tribune, which published some of his poems and an article on Walker entitled “Negro Butler for Jersey family Takes Up Poetry as Side Line.” From the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, Walker went from working as a butler for W. H. Wheelock to managing residential holdings in Harlem for Wheelock's Wall Street firm. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, Walker seems to have suffered a serious reversal of fortune; the scant evidence from his papers indicates only that Walker was in what he called his “wandering phase,” and that he left the Northeast, apparently settling in Washington, D.C. Returning to the Milford-New Haven area in the late 1940s, Walker worked for two aircraft firms; from 1961 to 1978, he worked as a personnel manager for the Hunt Pierce Corporation. Walker was a member of the Congregationalist Church until he was called to the ministry in 1958. Because the Congregationalists required their minister to attend seminary, and Walker, then 55 years old, felt he was prepared to begin his ministry immediately, he became a member of the Baptist Church, which did not require seminary training. In 1961, he became the pastor of Milford's First Baptist Church. Walker saw his role in the community as having both a spiritual and a civic aspect. In the latter role, he was involved in a wide variety of charitable and reform efforts in Milford, including leading the local Red Cross and seeking an end to discriminatory practices by lending institutions and real estate agencies. Following his belief that Northern cities also needed a civil rights movement, he issued a “Call to Conscience and Action” in Milford concurrent with the 1963 March on Washington. Walker continued his active role in the Milford community throughout the 1960s and 1970s, initiating a successful state-wide effort in 1976 to commemorate Connecticut's African American participants in the Revolutionary War, and building his congregation from 28 in 1961 to nearly 100 members at the time of his retirement in 1980.

Linking Entry

Forms part of: Charles D. Walker archive. Papers can be found in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division (Sc MG 375). Photographs can be found in the Photographs and Prints Division.

Connect to:

Request Access to Schomburg Moving Images and Recorded Sound

Added Author

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Research Call Number

Sc MIRS Walker 1988-41