A. T. Walden facts for kids

A.T. Walden (born April 12, 1885 – died July 2, 1965) was an American lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked on many important cases related to civil rights. In 1964, the mayor of Atlanta chose him to be a municipal judge. He was the first black judge appointed in Georgia since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.

Even though law schools in Georgia were segregated (meaning black and white students were kept separate), Walden went to Michigan. He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan. He came back to Georgia in 1911 to practice law. He was one of the very few black lawyers in the state during the 1940s and 1950s.

Walden played a key role in getting equal pay for black schoolteachers in Atlanta in 1943. He filed a lawsuit in federal court to make this happen. In 1952, he represented Horace Ward. This was the first legal challenge to allow a black student into the all-white University of Georgia Law School.

Walden became known as a leader in the civil rights movement in the South. Sometimes, he worked as a local lawyer for the NAACP. From 1946, he actively helped black people register to vote in Atlanta. He also contributed to many political and community groups. He was a powerful figure in the city and worked well with business and political leaders.

Early Life and Education

Austin Thomas Walden was born in Fort Valley, Georgia on April 12, 1885. His parents, Jennie Tomlin and Jeff Walden, were children when they were freed from slavery after the American Civil War. Walden went to schools that were segregated, meaning black and white students attended separately.

In 1907, Walden graduated from Atlanta University, which was a historically black college. Because of segregation, Georgia did not allow black students into its state professional and graduate schools. So, Walden used a special "out of state scholarship" from Georgia to go to Michigan. He earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1911. Later, in 1938, the practice of states offering scholarships instead of admitting black students was ruled against the law.

For a short time, Walden practiced law in Macon, Georgia. Then, in 1917, he joined the U.S. Army when the United States entered World War I. Walden became a captain and worked as an assistant judge advocate, which is a military lawyer. He left the army honorably in 1919. After that, he moved to Atlanta and started his own law practice.

In May 1918, Walden married Mary Ellen Denner. She was a public school teacher from Baltimore. They had two daughters named Jenelsie and Austella.

Legal Career and Civil Rights Work

As a lawyer, Walden often represented black professionals. These individuals faced unfair treatment because of their race and middle-class status.

Walden won an important federal lawsuit that lasted six years. This case led to equal pay for black public school teachers in Atlanta in 1943. Earlier, the Board of Education had raised salaries for white teachers by lowering those for black teachers. The NAACP joined the fight. Walden filed the lawsuit for a black teacher. This case showed that federal courts were starting to accept civil rights cases related to schools.

Walden was one of the few black lawyers in Georgia. He often worked with the national legal team of the NAACP. This team was led by Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Supreme Court Justice.

Walden also worked to end segregation in higher education. In 1952, he represented Horace Ward in the first lawsuit in Georgia. This case aimed to get a black student admitted to the all-white law school at the University of Georgia. Although Ward's lawsuit did not succeed at that time, he went on to graduate from Northwestern University School of Law. Change was coming, and Ward later helped other students successfully gain admission to the University of Georgia in 1961. He was later appointed as a federal judge.

Walden also helped lead talks to desegregate lunch counters in Atlanta. Students from local black colleges started the Atlanta sit-ins in 1960. They first protested at train and bus stations. Then, they moved to Rich's Department Store in October, which was a major store downtown. They also protested other unfair practices, like black people not being allowed to try on clothes or use common restrooms. Many activists, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., were arrested. Students then led boycotts of the department stores. By September 1961, many store owners ended segregation at their lunch counters. In 1962, a federal court ordered public pools and parks in the city to desegregate. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 later made all state laws supporting racial segregation illegal.

In 1948, Walden founded the Gate City Bar Association. This group was for African American lawyers in Atlanta.

In 1963, A.T. Walden retired as a full-time lawyer. However, he continued to take on charity cases for free. He remained very active as a political leader in civil rights in Atlanta.

Political Involvement

A.T. Walden started his political career as a Republican. He served as the chairman of the Republican Party executive committee for Georgia's 5th congressional district. After the early 1900s, the Republican Party became much weaker in the South. This was because state laws made it very hard for most black people to vote. So, Walden decided to join the Democratic Party where there was more political competition.

In 1940, he became a dedicated member of the Democratic Party. For a while, Georgia Democrats used a "white primary" system. This prevented black people from voting in the important primary elections. But the United States Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright (1944) ruled this practice illegal. After this, black activists worked hard to register African-American voters.

Walden spent much of his political career working on this goal in Atlanta. Black people were able to vote again starting in 1946. He helped found and co-chair the Atlanta Negro Voters League with J. W. Dobbs. He also led the All-Citizens Registration Committee. Efforts in every neighborhood helped increase the number of black registered voters. It grew from 1,800 in 1910 to 25,000 by 1939. However, white officials often used unfair practices to stop black people from registering. By gaining more representation in the city, black voters started to see results. The city invested more money in their neighborhoods and began to hire black policemen for the first time in 1948.

As times changed, Walden was elected to the State Democratic Committee of Georgia in 1962. In 1963, he was chosen as a Georgia delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Walden, along with Leroy Johnson, were the first black people to be part of a Georgia Democratic Convention delegation. That same year, President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

In 1964, Walden was appointed as the first black judge in Georgia since the Reconstruction era. Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. appointed him as an alternate judge for the municipal courts of Atlanta. After civil rights laws were passed, many white conservatives in Georgia and other Southern states left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party.

Community Leadership

Throughout his life, Walden was very involved in his community. He was recognized for his strong efforts in gaining equal rights for African Americans. He held leadership roles in many different organizations, including:

• Founder and president of the Gate City Bar Association.
• Chairman of the Executive Board of the YMCA and the Atlanta Urban League.
• President of the Alumni Association of Atlanta University.
• National vice-president of the NAACP and a member of its National Legal Committee.
• Chairman of the trustee board of Wheat Street Baptist Church and teacher of the Bryant Bible class.
• Founder and co-chairman of the Atlanta Negro Voters League.

Death

A.T. Walden passed away in Atlanta on July 2, 1965. He lived long enough to see the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. He also saw the start of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Congress passed later in 1965 and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law. The mayor of Atlanta praised Walden, saying, "Much of Atlanta’s outstanding pioneer progress and better race relations was due to the effective leadership of ‘Colonel’ Walden. His Leadership laid the groundwork for much that is not an accepted fact."