Wyatt Tee Walker, MLK confidant and civil rights leader, dies
Walker was "a legend in his own right," said the current president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Walker also led.
Wyatt Tee Walker in the 1970s at Canaan Baptist Church in New York City. File photo by Walter Mayo, courtesy of Dr. Melody McCloud, wyattteewalker.com.
Wyatt Tee Walker, a prominent New York City pastor and leader in the civil rights movement who helped Martin Luther King Jr. assemble his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” has died.
He was either 88 or 89, since family records showed different years of birth, said his daughter, Patrice Walker Powell. He had been in declining health the past few years after a stroke.
Walker was a key player in the civil rights movement, brought in by Martin Luther King Jr. to be the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference three years after the civil rights organization was founded.
