Remembering the Legacy of Activist and Scholar Dr. Ronald Walters
Professor Ronald W. Walters, a life-long civil rights advocate, renowned scholar, and political adviser, died of cancer on Friday. He was 72.
“Dr. Ron Walters was one the few contemporary Americans I truly idolized,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “He was a scholar, teacher, and activist of the first order, and he epitomized the best of what I and others in the civil and human rights movement strive to become. I will miss him tremendously; and all Americans who are committed to the fulfillment of democracy – even if they didn’t know him – should miss him too.”
In 1958, in his home town of Wichita, Kan., Walters led one of the first lunch counter sit-in protests of the civil rights movement. The Wichita sit-ins did not receive the publicity of the more famous sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C., which took place two years later. In 2006, Walters received a medal from the NAACP for his heroic act of civil disobedience.
In addition to his noted career as an activist, Walters was a well-respected academic. After attendingFisk University as an undergraduate, Walters earned his graduate degrees in African Studies and International Studies from American University. He chaired the African and Afro-American Studies Department at Brandeis University and the Political Science Department at Howard University, and was professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. He served as director of the African American Leadership Institute and Scholar Practitioner Program, and was a distinguished leadership scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. His passion for civil rights all over the world led to his creation of the TransAfrica Forum, a group that led the fight against South African apartheid and for better conditions in Haiti.
Walters was a close adviser to the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his two presidential bids and was a policy adviser for Congressmen Charles Diggs and William Gray. As a scholar, Walters authored several books and published more than 100 academic articles. At the time of his death, he had begun work on a book in defense of President Barack Obama’s political strategies.
Walters is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann Walters, as well as three brothers and two sisters.