I first met Ron Walters in the Fall of 1972, when I joined the faculty of the History Department of Howard University, where he served as chairperson of the Political Science Department, both located in Douglass Hall.  For professional credibility, we both belonged to the established organizations in our respective fields, but my passions were with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History founded by Carter G. Woodson, and his were with the National Council of Black Political Scientists founded and supported by himself, and other Black activist academicians from his field, only a few years earlier.

From the outset, Ron was a serious scholar, inspiring teacher, caring advisor, and was obsessed with recruiting the best young political scientists to his department and developing the graduate program, particularly doctoral studies. On that score, he was hugely successful. We became good friends through Leslie McLemore, Mack Jones, Hanes Walton, Vernon Gray, Alex Willingham, Charles Henry, and other young Black political scientists from the Joint Center for Political Studies who were changing the landscape for research on Black political  participation. We often talked about the legendary professors who preceded us at Howard. I was enamored with John Hope Franklin and he with Ralph Bunche, who founded his department in the 1930’s. When he spoke about the mission of his department and his vision for the department, one thing was transparent: academics without activism had no place in his life, nor a place in the ivory towers. On this single issue, for the  remainder of his life he never wavered, and there was no one more intense or determined in that regard.

In the wake of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, the Great Society of LBJ, and the promises of Affirmative Action, he defined a life-long course of action committing himself totally to the causes of social, political and economic justice, and to organizing, educating and energizing the base of black political involvement among his students, friends, colleagues, organizations, and the community --- first locally and ultimately nationally and internationally.  He actually “sat down” at a  segregated Wichita, Kansas lunch counter in the 1950’s, years before Greensboro, because his parents were involved in early civil rights efforts.  For the next half century and more, the apple never fell far from the tree.

One night in the mid-1980’s, he sat in the audience for Ted Koppel’s Nightline television program, where a community forum was being staged on a national black issue. When Ron approached the microphone with a difficult question for Koppel, he was politely dismissed with a sugar-coated response which avoided his question altogether. Ron was incensed, though characteristically he maintained his professional composure. But Ron would not sit down or relinquish the microphone, protesting so strongly with exquisite command of the language that his question had been purposely avoided, forcing the network to an abrupt unscheduled commercial break. During the interim, he was told that his time had expired. Still, he demanded to be heard. The discomfiture that he caused was so severe, that it resulted in the format of the  questions from the audience being hastily abandoned for the remainder of the program.

It was what was to become his signature – he never retreated from anything that he deeply believed in, would not compromise his integrity, and wrote and spoke without fear of retribution. Over time, he became so prominent that he could not be ignored, and major newspapers frequently called on him for his opinions on various political concerns – easily edited and filtered before publication. The Black press and media adored and revered Ron Walters because he told the truth in ways understood by hard-working and often angry average Black people, the mainstream white press avoided his syndicated column for precisely the same reasons.

History will record that some of the most penetrating, cutting-edge political commentary of the late 20th. and early 21st. centuries were made by Ron Walters. In his memory and out of respect for his legacy, the questions he raised which remain with us because they were never satisfactorily answered, are those that can no longer be deferred or avoided, and more importantly, they are those from which we cannot retreat. We “too” are Americans  - paid in full and demand respect and dignity - nothing more and not a damn thing less!

We will also continue to grow larger and stronger, when we re-read and reconsider Ron Walters, for a long time one of the tallest and proudest trees in the forest of justice.

He was the real deal, truly sui generis.

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

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator Dr. Al-Tony Gilmore, PhD is Associate Project Director, NEA Archives, Research Department and Visiting Scholar, George Washington University.  Click here to contact Dr. Gilmore.