Whereas Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker was a champion of equality, justice, and freedom in the civil rights movement and throughout his life; Whereas, in his book, Why We Can’t Wait, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., described Walker as having brought his energetic and untiring spirit to our meetings, whose members already knew and admired his dedicated work as a behind-the-scenes organizer of the campaign ; Whereas Dr. Walker, the grandson of a former slave, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts; Whereas Dr. Walker received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics and a Master of Divinity degree from Virginia Union University; Whereas, after graduating, Dr. Walker served as pastor at the Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia; Whereas Dr. Walker was instrumental in the civil rights movement in Virginia, serving as head of the Petersburg chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), State director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the founder of the Petersburg Improvement Association; Whereas, in 1959, Dr. Walker led a Pilgrimage of Prayer in Richmond, Virginia, against school segregation, which resulted in the passage of a resolution urging the appointment of a biracial commission to seek a solution to Virginia’s segregated school system; Whereas, in 1960, Dr. Walker and other African Americans protesting segregation were arrested and jailed after entering through the whites only entrance of the Petersburg Public Library to check out a biography of Robert E. Lee; Whereas Dr. Walker’s bravery and leadership in the local struggle for equality and justice garnered the attention and respect of Dr. King; Whereas Dr. Walker served as Dr. King’s chief of staff in the early 1960s, organizing landmark demonstrations throughout Alabama and the South