Monthly Archives: January 2019

Remembering the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker One Year Later

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(Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.) Today marks the one-year anniversary of Dr. Walker’s passing. If you’ve been reading the #WyattWalkerWednesday posts over the past year, you’ll have a good idea of some of the progress that’s been made on processing the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection, work that’s been done always with Dr. Walker and his legacy in mind. In order to further honor this momentous figure in American history, the University of Richmond published today an oral history of Dr. Walker and Mrs. Theresa Ann Walker.

Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Walker sitting for the oral history recorded July 29, 2016.

This oral history (available here), believed to be Dr. Walker’s final recorded interview before his passing, was recorded during the summer of 2016. In it, Dr. Walker and his wife cover topics from the Freedom Rides in 1961 and their involvement with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to Dr. Walker’s approach to gospel music and his favorite preachers. The Walkers discuss their opinions and memories of several other major civil rights figures, including Ella Baker, Ralph Abernathy, and Al Sharpton, as well as lesser known names such as Diane Nash, Juanita Abernathy, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Recorded in two sessions totaling approximately two and a half hours, a transcript is available for each recording is also available at the link above.

The Walkers are interviewed by Dr. Joseph Evans, Dean of Theology at Morehouse School of Religion. Dr. Evans is also connected to Dr. Walker in various ways, and his existing insight into Dr. Walker’s life and work allows the oral history to delve deeper into some of these topics. Dr. Evans was also the keynote speaker at the Walker Symposium held last fall.

This is the first material we’re making publicly available, and we do have plans to release other material soon. Please keep an eye on this blog as well as the library’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds for further announcements!

The Walker Collection in the New Year

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(Note: This post was authored by Taylor McNeilly, Processing & Reference Archivist.) Welcome to the first #WyattWalkerWednesday of 2019! This week we’re going to do a quick recap of some of the latest updates on the Dr. and Mrs. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection, then talk about plans moving forward into the spring. The library here at the University of Richmond has been coming back to life after our winter break, and work on the collection started right away at full speed.

When last we posted, we had just received the first ten audio cassettes sent out as a test batch to our digitization vendor. While work on these is ongoing, we do hope to have at least the first few up and available online for the public soon! The files were delivered without problem and appear to be whole and complete. Description work is moving forward, and once that is done, we’ll be able to post them online.

While work on these first ten recordings is moving forward, I’m also working on the remaining cassettes! With the help of a student worker, all of these were inventoried for our digitization vendor – we ended up with over our estimate of 800! The total number of audio cassettes sent to the vendor capped out at 834. Included with these was also a single audio reel (a technology used before the audio cassette was introduced to the general public in 1963) and five film reels – you may recall I’ve spoken about the film reels in the past. Overall, 830 items were waiting to be sent along to our vendor after the successful test batch, and I am happy to report that those were shipped out yesterday afternoon! These may take some time to digitize and be returned to us, especially considering the six non-cassette items included, but we’re hoping to have these coming online for public use later in the year.

While work on the audio cassettes has been moving forward, processing has also of course continued. And one of the greatest benefits of processing the collection is that material that has been processed can be put on exhibition to allow some access to the collection while I finish preparing it for research. To that end, we have two exhibitions here in Richmond that will be using Walker Collection material. One of these opens in January and is hosted at UR Downtown, while the other will be later in the year – more information on that will be coming, too!

Overall, the past few months have been a quite busy time for RBSC and the Walker Collection. We hope to continue having some great news for you as we move through 2019, so keep a close eye on this blog for future announcements!