Draft:Lillian Walker (activist)
Lillian Walker (née Allen) (October 2, 1913 - January 4, 2012) was an African American civil rights activist from Bremerton, Washington.
Early life[edit]
Walker was born on a farm in Carrier Mills, Illinois on October 2, 1913.[1][2] Walker had ten siblings, although only five of them survived childhood.[3] Walker's parents were mixed-race and, according to Walker, her father was the descendant of a Tennessee slave-owner who threatened to sell his mixed-race descendants into slavery.[1] After graduating from Carrier Mills High School, Walker worked in Harrisburg, Illinois and studied to be a nurse for a time.[1]
In 1937, Walker moved to Chicago and met her future husband, James. James was a traveling musician and the two moved to Seattle, Washington in 1940.[1] After their marriage in 1941, the Walkers moved to Bremerton, where James worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.[1] At the time they moved to Bremerton, the city was experiencing a massive influx of African American residents due to the war effort.[4]
Activist career[edit]
Shortly after moving to Bremerton, Walker noticed that the racial environment was significantly more tense than that of Chicago. Describing the Bremerton in the 1940s, Walker did not bite her tongue, calling it a "white supremacist town."[1] Shortly after moving to Bremerton, Walker joined a local civil rights organization as the group's secretary, but quickly realized that more outright activism was necessary.[4] While working as postmaster of Sinclair Park, a segregated community in the city, Walker helped organize the Bremerton branch of the NAACP.[1][3][5] Working with the NAACP, she helped organize several protests, resulting in several local businesses revoking their segregationist policies.[1][4]
She continued her activism into the 1950s, working with lawyers to sue businesses that refused to serve African Americans.[1][4] In 1947, Walker helped found the YWCA of Kitsap County.[4] Near the end of her life, Walker said that "I've always tried to treat people like I want to be treated. I don't care what color you are as long as you're a good person. I've never understood prejudice and I've never put up with it."[6]
Later life and legacy[edit]
Walker stayed active in the Kitsap County community in her later life.[1] She died on January 4, 2012.[7] A public park in Bremerton was named after Lilian and James Walker on June 17, 2016.[8][9]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Walker, Lillian; Hughes, John C. (2010). Lillian Walker, Washington State Civil Rights Pioneer: A Biography and Oral History. Washington State Legacy Project. ISBN 978-1889320229.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kershner, Kate (2011-09-29). "Walker, Lillian (1913-2012)". HistoryLink. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ "Lillian & James Walker". Kitsap History Museum. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
- ^ a b Hughes, John (2009-11-09). "Fighting for Racial Justice in the Pacific Northwest: Lillian Walker and the Long Struggle for Civil Rights". BlackPast. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
- ^ a b c d e Morgan, Marilyn (2022). Trailblazing Black Women of Washington State. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 42–46. ISBN 9781439675366.
- ^ Kershner, Kate (2011-11-16). "Bremerton NAACP branch is founded on May 23, 1943". HistoryLink. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Kilmer, Derek (2018-05-22). "Recognizing the 75th Anniversary of NAACP Bremerton Unit 1134" (PDF). Congressional Record. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Gardner, Steven (2012-01-05). "Lillian Walker, the 'soul' of Bremerton, dies at 98". Kitsap Sun. Retrieved 2023-11-08.
- ^ Beahm, Michelle (2016-06-23). "The legacy of civil rights activist Lillian A. Walker". Kitsap Daily News. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
- ^ "Lillian and James Walker Park". City of Bremerton. Retrieved 2023-11-11.