Author Malcolm J. Walker has gifted readers with a book written to not only inform but to help reshape thinking regarding the lives and accomplishments of African Americans living during segregation in the southern United States. Walker’s book, The Summary of Life of Walter Caldwell Robinson, focuses on Walter Caldwell Robinson, a man of both influence and change. His success as a businessman and politician enlightened and unified the black community in a time fraught with division and fear. Walker’s representation of Robinson’s life is a must-read.
“Get some sense in your head, some God in your heart, some money in your pocket, and a ballot in your hand!” ~ Walter Caldwell Robinson
About the Book:
Born to sharecropping parents in rural Alabama in 1893, Walter Caldwell Robinson moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee at nine years old. Driven and determined from an early age, Robinson began working outside his parents’ home at the age of eleven. By the time he turned sixteen, he was operating his own laundry business.
After marrying and becoming a father, Robinson followed his heart and entered the world of politics. It was during this time he was elected the Chairman of the Fourth Ward, the largest black voting precinct during that time. His work led to the creation of the Colored Voters League of Greater Chattanooga – an organization so powerful it was capable of determining the outcome of local elections.
1927 saw the election of H.D. Huffacker as Commissioner of Education. For his successful efforts in the voting arena, Robinson was awarded a job as a truant officer for the Chattanooga Public Schools System. For almost ten years, Robinson worked to ensure black children attended school regularly, hired teachers, janitors, and cooks in black schools, and assisted in decision-making for the city of Chattanooga.
The owner of the Chattanooga Observer, a weekly newspaper, Robinson used his publication and influence to express his views regarding the Republican party and ensure candidates most concerned with the black community’s needs were elected. Robinson succeeded in making his mark and making a positive difference on behalf of the black community at a time when the Ku Klux Klan’s policies and activities dominated the atmosphere in the South.
About the Author:
The third child of nine, Malcolm Jones Walker was born and raised in the South. In 1964, he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, a segregated school outside the city limits of Chattanooga, Tennessee in Hamilton County. A self-starter much like the man about whom he writes, Walker worked two jobs during the summer in order to send himself to college. He earned his B.S. in history from Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University in 1968 and a Master of Science in history from Tennessee State University in 1971. Walker worked as a teacher, assistant principal, supervisor, and director in the Chattanooga Public Schools System from 1968 to 2001. The Summary of Life of Walter Caldwell Robinson is his first published biography.
Media Contact
Company Name: Gotham Books
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Country: United States
Website: www.malcolmjwalker.com