Ron Walters makes his Homegoing at age 72

Photo by Robin Holland for pbs.org

African American scholar, Ron Walters, has made his Homegoing at the age of 72. I have looked over several tributes and I wanted to add that while in Ghana I had the honor of attending a lecture by Professor Walters on the relevance of pan-Africanism in the 21st century. The event was hosted by the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre for Pan African Culture in Accra.  Professor Walters was a Black Nationalist and a Pan-Africanist or at least he was in my view. His commitment to black struggle was not enunciated with powerful rhetoric. Rather, he made his case with impeccable scholarship, the power of the keyboard as it were. 


May his journey to the world of the Ancestors be sweet. 



 Axé!
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Ron Walters, Community's “Tallest Tree,” Dead at 72 (Dap @ Mark Anthony Neal)

by Talibah Chikwendu for Afro News

For more than four decades, Ronald Walters, PhD. served the African-American community, the United States and the world as a consultant, teacher, writer, mentor and friend. His service came to a close Sept. 10, when he lost a battle with cancer at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. He was 72 years old.
 
Walters was born in Wichita, Kan. in 1938. He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from Fisk University and earned a masters degree in African studies and a doctorate in International Studies from American University. Walters was a professor since the early 1970s, teaching at numerous institutions including at Georgetown, Syracuse, Brandeis and Howard universities and the University of Maryland. He was chairman of the Howard University Department of Political Science and chairman of Afro-American Studies at Brandeis.
 
He also served as a visiting professor at Princeton University and was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Walters’ longtime friend the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Howard University had recently convinced Walters to come out of retirement and return to teaching, and that Walters was looking forward to the opportunity.
 
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) met Walters while a student at Howard. “As a teacher, he always found time for his students,” Cummings told the AFRO. “When he was at Howard, we would fight to get in his classes. He was always telling us to reach high, to be a part of the political process.”


Walters also made his mark as a dedicated scholar, authoring and co-authoring more than 10 books and hundreds of academic articles and commentaries. He was awarded the Ralph Bunch Prize for his book Black Presidential Politics in America. He was also a political consultant, serving as policy adviser to former congressmen William Gray and Charles Diggs. He worked with a number of organizations and serving as director of public policy for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns.


Read more @  Afro.com


tags: education, activism, pan africanism

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