From Jim Crow to Black Power

Rev Harold Walker, a retired Presbyterian minister,  shared stories and insights from his life in ministry with students in REL 340 Religion and Civil Rights.

Dr. Slade conducted an oral history with Walker as part of the class. "Rev Walker has such a wealth experience and wisdom," Slade said. "He shared with us stories that shone a light on what it meant to grow up in the South before the civil rights movement and desegregation. He also experienced the racism and injustice in the urban North and had remarkable tales of working with violent gangs in Chicago."

Born in Birmingham, AL, in 1929, Walker served as an assistant minister in Starkville MS from 1949-51. He then moved to Chicago where he worked as a campus minister at the University of Chicago and at First Presbyterian Church where he was involved in the founding of The Woodlawn Organization .

Students taking REL340 conduct their own oral history interviews as part of the class.