Theresa Walker (center) talks with University of Richmond President Ronald A. Crutcher at the Wyatt Tee Walker Symposium in October 2018. (Photo by Jamie Betts courtesy University of Richmond, University Communications)
“They thought because the bus was burned, people wouldn’t go on the Freedom Rides. My husband and I agreed, we couldn’t let this stop us. That’s why I went, and that’s why I’d go again if I had to,” Theresa Ann Walker said in an interview with Richmond magazine contributor Samantha Willis, published in January, about her role in a June 1961 Freedom Ride to Jackson, Mississippi, where she and her husband were arrested.
A month earlier, a white mob in Alabama had attacked a bus carrying a group of Freedom Riders from Washington, D.C., beat some of the travelers and then set the bus on fire. The Walkers and other Freedom Riders were challenging racial segregation on interstate buses and terminals.
Photo courtesy Archives and Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Walker, now in her early 90s, talked in the interview about the role she and other women played in the civil rights movement. Her husband, the late Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s and was chief strategist to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Wherever you come across racism, you must speak up and out and stop it in its tracks if you can, however you can,” she said, adding, “There’s still much work for all of us to do.”
On Saturday, Oct. 26, Theresa Ann Walker, who lives in Chester, will speak at a panel discussion on the “Unsung Women in the Civil Rights Movement” at Chesterfield County’s Central Library. The program will consider the past roles of women in social justice, as well as current civil rights issues. Other panelists include author and researcher Elvatrice Belsches, artist Joel Howard, and visiting University of Richmond professor Corey D.B. Walker. The free event starts at 7 p.m. and registration is required. To register, visit chesterfieldfriends.org, email chooseccpl@chesterfield.gov or call 804-717-6696.
