Last week, a fighter for equality, civil rights, and justice for all in every sphere of American life died at the age of 72.

Ron Walters, a political activist, scholar, and expert in American political life started his involvement in a broad range of issues at an early age.

He told an interviewer last year: “I am an NAACP baby. Born in the struggle to desegregate the Dockum Drug Store in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958, two years before the Greensboro sit-in, as a leader of the NAACP Youth Council.” He was 19 at the time.

Brother Ron’s action in Wichita may not have received the publicity that the 1960 Greensboro, N.C., drug store sit-in received - either at the time or in the history books - but it was a pattern to be repeated throughout his life: It did not matter whether the action was popular at the time or whether what he did would be prominent in history books; if it was right, he did it.

One characteristic of Ron Walters, repeated by many who knew him, was that no matter how important or unimportant an individual or group were to others, if they asked him for help and their cause was just, he gave of himself freely, drawing on his vast experience in study and practical work, to help out.

Others already have noted the vast range of his scholarly achievements, the honors, and the thanks of a vast array of activists and leaders from around the country, some describing him as the “tallest tree” in the forest.

But the wisdom of his years of service to others was something that everyone who knew him or knew of him never should forget.

Included in Brother Ron’s store of wisdom was a warning. Here’s what he said in a radio interview just 14 months ago:

“Well, some of us believe that we are free because we have achieved the material trappings of success. But, I remember billionaire Bob Johnson wanting to start up an airline only to have mysterious problems and I remember his wife, Sheila, also a billionaire, having problems opening up a spa in hunt country Virginia. But, most of all, I remember Michael Jackson in this hour, an heroic but also a tragic figure who eventually became a captive of the success he engendered to the point that it killed him.”

Deep in this “great recession,” he also always thought about the people who were barely scraping-by, people who always were just getting-by. What happens to them and how does a nation ensure that the people who are at the low end of the economic scale become able to live a decent and humane life?

These are problems that he thought about and tried to solve, including his involvement in the national electoral process, working in Jesse Jackson’s campaigns in the 1980s to win the Democratic nomination for president. That campaign brought with it the Rainbow Coalition and its efforts to see that all Americans were provided health care and jobs and the campaign also greatly increased working-class voter enrollment. In fact, he pointed out, no one linked the issues of race and class as well as the Jackson campaigns in the ‘80s.

In everything, every endeavor, he was a teacher, as well as an analyst and worker. And, when he had studied an issue or problem, analyzed it, and come up with a potential solution, he shared it with those who might not see a solution.

Always seeking to find ways to consolidate and institutionalize gains made toward equality and justice, Brother Ron was adamant that working to organize in the local communities was of vital importance, whether it was a local issue or a overarching national issue. That’s why he had such great respect for community organizers and the groups that emanated from their work.

But, he was especially concerned in this time of great economic distress, when so many black Americans are suffering in impoverished communities and so many are imprisoned or in the justice system.

“In this economic recession,” he said in 2009, “I most often wonder about those who were broke and busted before it began; they are now at the back of the line once again, facing the prospect of having to start the game of life way back behind the newly poor, the newly unemployed, and the newly un-housed. With an unemployment rate approaching 20 percent, many blacks will have to climb a long way back to achieve economic parity with the rest of the nation.”

May the thousands or tens of thousands whom he taught and led and counseled over the decades be ready to carry the heavy workload he carried, and may they never forget his advice. We never met, but we often worked in the same or similar fields and it was good to have appeared in the pages of Black Commentator with him for a time.

Rest in peace, Brother Ron Walters.

Click here to send a condolence message to the family of Ron Walters

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer. His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.