A Civil Rights passing

An ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has died.

Among his many acts of civil disobedience, Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker was arrested in 1961 at the Montgomery bus station for trying to eat together with seven other black leaders and four white clergymen.

In a Sept. 25, 1963 photo, The Rev. Martin Luther King,Jr., left, VP Joseph E. Lowery, and Wyatt Tee Walker, right, executive director of the SCLC meet at First African Baptist Church, for the SCLC convention in Richmond, Va. The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, who helped assemble the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail" from notes the incarcerated King wrote on paper scraps and newspaper margins, died Tuesday morning, Jan. 23, 2018, in Chester, Va., said his daughter Patrice Walker Powell. He was either 88 or 89. Family records showed different years of birth, said Powell, who confirmed his death. (Carl Lynn/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

The New York Times obituary credits Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker with civil rights actions in Birmingham:

“I was fully committed to nonviolence, and I believe with all my heart that for the civil rights movement to prove itself, its nonviolent actions had to work in Birmingham,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for Birmingham, there wouldn’t have been a Selma march, there wouldn’t have been a 1965 civil rights bill. Birmingham was the birthplace and affirmation of the nonviolent movement in America.”

Dr. Walker helped circulate “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” one of the most important documents of the civil rights movement, in which Dr. King argued for civil disobedience as a legitimate response to racial segregation. He also helped organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which culminated with Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.