(Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.) Next week the University of Richmond will be celebrating International Education Week with activities all week focused on South Africa. Given Dr. Walker’s close relationship with President Nelson Mandela, we knew we had to get in on the action! For this #WyattWalkerWednesday, I’ll be giving you a sneak peek into some of our activities for South Africa Week, but make sure to stop by campus next week to get in on all the fun!

Perhaps the most important role that the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection will play during South Africa Week will be during the Illuminated Tree Walk. Trees hold a special place in South African tradition and culture, and a large part of this event is intended to respect that tradition. The path of the walk begins at the International Center at 5pm and ends at the Heilman Dining Center, where a special dinner is being offered. Along the walk will be pop-up stations highlighting various aspects of South African culture and history. Some of these stations will explore themes such as justice, reconciliation, commemoration, and environmental stewardship. One such station will be manned by Rare Books Special Collections staff, and will focus on Dr. Walker, President Mandela, and the role of the U.S. civil rights movement in anti-apartheid.

Nelson Mandela speaks at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem as a guest of Dr. Walker during his first official visit to the U.S. as President of South Africa.

As a special setup, the Walker Collection station will include not just a table on which materials from the collection highlighting the previously mentioned themes will sit, but also a projector and screen setup showing digitized images from the collection. These images are taken from a photo album documenting President Nelson Mandela’s trip to Canaan Baptist Church of Christ as a guest of Dr. Walker. This visit was part of President Mandela’s first official visit to the United States and was perhaps a capstone in his relationship with Dr. Walker, who had been an outspoken anti-apartheid activist both domestically and internationally.

For more information about Dr. Walker’s ties to U.S. and South African anti-apartheid work, as well as to view more of the images documenting President Mandela’s visit to Dr. Walker’s Harlem church, come by the Illuminated Tree Walk next Wednesday at 5pm! And as always, check back here for more updates on the collection and its status as we continue to work on opening it to the public.

(Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.) The Wyatt Tee Walker Symposium originally scheduled for Thursday, September 13 and canceled due to Hurricane Florence has now been officially rescheduled! I’ll take this week’s #WyattWalkerWednesday post to discuss some details and how it pertains to the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection.

Originally announced during the second memorial held in honor of Dr. Walker at Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, VA by President Crutcher, the Wyatt Tee Walker Symposium will consist of a panel of speakers, a keynote address, and a special preview exhibition of materials from the collection. Since its announcement, the event has become the first major event of UR’s School of Arts & Sciences yearlong theme of Contested Spaces: Race, Nation, and Conflict. The event is hosted by the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the School of Arts & Sciences.

The panel will consist of four speakers: Corey Walker, Vice President, Dean and Professor of Religion and Society at Virginia Union University; Chris Dorsey, President of Higher Education & Leadership Ministries of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ; Laura Browder, Professor of American Studies; and Thad Williamson, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies and Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Each panelist brings a different area of expertise that Dr. Walker’s life has touched on, including activism, theology, civil rights, urban development, and more. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Joseph Evans, Dean of the Morehouse School of Religion and Senior Pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Dr. Evans was also a Walker Scholar and close friend of Dr. and Mrs. Walker. He also conducted our oral history with the Walkers in 2016, which is believed to be the final recorded interview with Dr. Walker.

To support this symposium and help provide some material context for the life and work of Dr. Walker, Boatwright Library Rare Books and Special Collections will be putting on a short “sneak preview” of the collection. This will include manuscript material as well as objects from the collection highlighting the work Dr. Walker did throughout his life. If you have any interest in what the collection holds and are in the area, this is a fantastic chance to get a quick look into the collection!

Besides this post, you can get additional details about the symposium – and register to attend the panel, keynote, or both – on the Wyatt Tee Walker Symposium webpage. And in the meantime, keep an eye on this space for more information about the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection, my progress in processing it, and what else the Rare Books and Special Collections is up to!