An Intellectual Hero in the Cause for Justice for Black People

In 1976, I became involved in the National Black Political Assembly, an African-American political group that attempted to build an independent movement outside of thetwo-party electoral system. We attempted to draft Julian Bond as our presidential candidate in 1976. Thekey intellectual who helped to frame our deliberation was a young Howard University political scientist, Ronald Walters. I had only just completed my Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, and I looked to Ron as an intellectual older brother. I frequently sought his advice and his ideas about his own work, as well as my own. As I began to publish articles and then books on black politics and African-American history, Ron provided important insight and reflections, which greatly shaped my writings.

After coming to Columbia University nearly twenty years ago, I established various programs as well as a journal, Souls, that addressed key issues in the political life of Black America. One of our strongest and most consistent friends was Ron Walters, who by this time, was a distinguished scholar and professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. Ron was a contributor to Souls and we welcomed his analysis and review of articles submitted to the journal for publication.

What I admired most about Ron was that he was not an armchair theorist, detached from the struggle and concerns of the masses of black people. He had a remarkable skill in effectively presenting arguments that everyday people could easily understand. He was an effective critic in the media and especially on television. The aspect of Ron’s political analysis that I found very attractive was that he placed at the very center of his work a sharp critique of white supremacy, and forms of institutional racism. In this era of colorblind racism, or race-neutrality, Ron did not flinch from calling racism its ugly name, racism. Ron’s heart and spirit were dedicated to black liberation, and he did not care if everyone knew that. To me, he will always be an intellectual hero in the cause for justice for black people.