Clergyman, civil rights leader; born in Brockton, Massachusetts Walker received a B.S. degree (1950) and his B.D. degree (1953) from Virginia Union University. He was pastor of a Baptist church in Petersburg, Virginia for eight years, and then became executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., before serving as chief of staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) from 1960 to 1964. Walker was a minister at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and Canaan Baptist Church, both in New York, New York. Beginning in 1966, while serving as vice-president and later as president of Educational Heritage, Inc. a publishing firm, he was also a special assistant to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York on urban affairs. Walker was vice-president of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater New York, and in 1972 he was appointed a visiting professor at Princeton Seminary. He received more than 100 awards and citations for his work in human relations and civil rights.