Ronald W. Walters (Finding Aid)

Ronald W. Walters

1938 - 2010

Favorite Color: Blacks and Browns

Favorite Food: Soul Food

Favorite Time of Year: Autumn

Interview Length: 209 minutes

Interview Date(s): June 5, 2003, July 15, 2003

Interview Location(s): Silver Spring, Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Abstract

African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters talks about his family's migration from Texas to Kansas. He remembers his own childhood and youth in Wichita, Kansas, including his leadership role in the 1958 Wichita sit-in movement. He describes his college experiences at Fisk and his decision to study African history. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters talks about his role, as the head of the Wichita, Kansas NAACP youth group, leading of the1958 sit-in movement in Wichita and discusses the students' differences with the adult local branch and the national organization. He fondly describes his experience at at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was excited to be able to immerse himself in African American culture and the school's venerated scholarly tradition . He also recalls his first meeting with his wife at a civil rights event in Illinois, their marriage and relocation in 1963 to Washington, D.C. where he studied at American University. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters talks about his professors in African Studies at Howard University and his own early teaching career at Syracuse and Brandeis Universities in the late 1960s. He also discusses his work to increase African American political participation and about his involvement in the African Liberation Support Committee in the early 1970s. African American political activist Ron Walters talks about issues related to his work and interest in foreign and domestic politics during the 1970s and 1980s, mostly focusing on Africa. He cites ideological conflicts within the Pan-African movement and how this played out at the 1974 6th Pan-African Congress. He tells of his disagreement with United States foreign policy toward African independence movements and African Americans' formation of TransAfrica as a lobbying group to influence U.S. Africa policy. Walters also covers Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns and praises Jackson's raising the issues of Middle East and South Africa. He also comments on his early role in the reparations movement. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters talks about the Million Man March called by Louis Farrakhan and held in Washington, D.C., in 1995; he discusses various aspects of the planning, media coverage, statements by black leaders at the event, and the importance of the March to the African American community. He also briefly touches on the Million Woman March of 1997 and the Million Youth March and Million Youth Movement demonstrations in 1998. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters traces the rise of black nationalism and discusses ideas of African American identity. He talks at length on the growing movement in Africa and the diaspora calling for reparations for slavery and colonialism, mentioning his involvement with reparations organizations and international conferences in Nigeria (1993) and in South Africa (2001). He points out that slavery in the Confederacy did not "stop on a dime" with the end of the Civil War in 1865, and argues that African Americans in some parts of the South lived in slavery-like conditions up until the Civil Rights Movement. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters discusses legal cases and proposed legislation related to reparations for slavery and points out the vast differences in economic and societal power African Americans would have iif they had had a level playing field since 1865. He talks about how poverty fuels civil wars in Africa and the difficulties in achieving unity among the African diaspora. Examining the future of the African American community, he urges that we need social movements as well as an emphasis on the political and corporate success of individuals. African American scholar and activist Ronald Walters responds to the criticism of Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism that any idea of unity based on race is in itself racist. He then considers his own legacy and how he would like to be remembered. Walters comments on a series of photographs of himself and others, showing his involvement with various organizations and events.

50 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)