Edward G. Walker

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|name = Edward G. Walker

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|image = Edwin Walker.jpg

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|caption = Edward G. Walker (1830–1901), son of David Walker (abolitionist), one of the first two black men elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature.

|order =

|office = Member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
from the 3rd Middlesex district {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/manualforuseofge1867mass |year=1867 |location=Boston |publisher=Commonwealth of Massachusetts |title= Manual for the Use of the General Court |hdl= 2452/40645 |via=State Library of Massachusetts |last1=Court |first1=Massachusetts General }}

|term_start = 1867

|term_end = 1867

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|birth_date = 1830

|birth_place = Edgefield, South Carolina

|death_date = {{death year and age|1901|1830}}

|death_place = Quincy, Massachusetts

|party = Republican (before 1868)
Democratic
Negro Party (1896)

|parents = David Walker
Eliza Walker

}}

Edward Garrison Walker (1830–1901), also Edwin Garrison Walker, was an African American artisan in Boston who became an attorney; in 1861, he became one of the first black men to pass the Massachusetts bar. In 1866 he and Charles Lewis Mitchell were the first two African Americans elected to the Massachusetts state legislature. Walker was the son of Eliza and David Walker, the militant abolitionist and author of An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829).

Early life

Edward Garrison Walker was born in Edgefield, South Carolina in 1830 to Eliza Walker,{{#tag:ref|Most sources say his mother was Eliza, believed to be a runaway slave.[http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/walker-edward-garrison-1831-1901 Edwin Garrison Walker.] BlackPast.org. Retrieved April 22, 2013. University of North Carolina suggests her name was Emily. Another theory (not a consensus position) is that she was Eliza Butler, from a notable black family in Boston.[http://www.cfhi.net/DavidWalkerBlackWilmingtonAbolitionist.php David Walker: Black Wilmington Abolitionist], Cape Fear Historical Institute. Retrieved April 22, 2013.|group="nb"}} the widow of David Walker, who had died in early August 1830.{{#tag:ref|The Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts stated that Walker was born in 1835.{{cite book|author=William Thomas Davis|title=Bench and bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts|url=https://archive.org/details/benchbarofcommon01davi|access-date=April 22, 2013|year=1895|publisher=The Boston History Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/benchbarofcommon01davi/page/278 278]}} If he was born in 1835, then David Walker would not have been his father, and this was two years after his mother's marriage to Alexander Dewson. Hinks says this is not likely, because Edwin would have been unlikely to have used the last name Walker if he was the son of Dewson.|group="nb"}} At the time when the couple was expecting the birth of Edward, they already had a daughter named Lydia Ann. In 1830 a tuberculosis epidemic in Boston took the lives of Lydia Ann on July 30 and her father David on August 6.{{cite web |title=David Walker, 1785–1830 |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/bio.html|publisher=University of North Carolina |access-date=April 22, 2013 }} David had collapsed and died at the entrance to his store.{{cite book|author=Paul Della Valle|title=Massachusetts Troublemakers: Rebels, Reformers, and Radicals from the Bay State|url=https://archive.org/details/massachusettstro0000dell|url-access=registration|access-date=April 22, 2013|date=January 13, 2009|publisher=Globe Pequot|isbn=978-0-7627-5795-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/massachusettstro0000dell/page/103 103]}} He was a free black man from Wilmington, North Carolina who had settled in Boston about 1825, where he became a prominent abolitionist.

When Walker died, his widow Eliza was unable to keep up the annual payments of $266 ("a huge sum for Walker") made to George Parkman for the purchase of their home, and she lost it. In his pamphlet Appeal, Walker had earlier written: "But I must, really, observe that generally falls into the hands of some white persons. The wife and children of the deceased may weep and lament if they please, but the estate will be kept snug enough of its white possessor."{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Hinks|title=To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvUDetvZPB4C&pg=PA77|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=1997|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-04274-9|pages=77–}}

Eliza Butler Walker met Alexander Dewson, whom she married on September 19, 1833. He also had a son, Alexander, born about 1830, whom he brought to the family with her and her son Edward.{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Hinks|title=To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker And the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBrSAEkfxQcC&pg=PA270|access-date=April 24, 2013|date=January 30, 1996|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-02927-6|pages=270–}} They had a daughter, Margareta, who died at five months of age on April 11, 1837, of lung fever. Dewson was listed as a laborer in the city directory in 1837.{{#tag:ref|Hinks says that Dewson (or Duson) was not in the city records after 1839.|group="nb"}}

By 1848 and at least through 1852, the Dewsons lived on 13 Southac Street in Charlestown.[http://www.primaryresearch.org/bh/db/namesearch.php?any=Dewson Alex Dewson ID #1717.] Black Boston Database. Retrieved April 24, 2013.{{cite book|title=The Boston Directory: ...including All Localities Within the City Limits, as Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Roslindale, Roxbury, West Roxbury|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UHDPAAAAMAAJ|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=1850|publisher=Sampson & Murdock Company|page=317}} Southac Street is not Phillips Street, located in Beacon Hill.[http://mass.historicbuildingsct.com/?tag=black-heritage-trail Black Heritage Trail: Lewis Hayden], Historic Buildings of Massachusetts. Retrieved April 24, 2013. Alexander Dewson died at the age of 46 of consumption (tuberculosis) on May 3, 1851.{{cite book|author=Massachusetts. Supreme Judicial Court|title=Massachusetts Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nRIQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA333|access-date=April 24, 2013|year=1881|publisher=H.O. Houghton and Company|pages=334–35}}{{#tag:ref|The senior Alexander was posthumously bequeathed $1000 for the construction of a house from William H. Bordman, who died on June 15, 1872. Since Alexander had died by this time, there was a question about whether Eliza, son Edward and stepson Alexander were entitled to the inheritance. The second question was whether Alexander was entitled to the entire portion, or if it should be split three ways. The case – John D. Bates & another, administrator, vs. Alexander Dewson, and others – was presented to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. It was decided that Alexander's family should inherit the money and that it should be split equally between his widow Eliza and son Alexander.|group="nb"}} The young Edward Walker attended public schools in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Leatherwork

Walker received training in working with leather as a young man. He established a business that eventually employed 15 people.

Abolitionist

File:Shadrach Minkins for sale.jpg, 1849]]

Walker became an abolitionist as his father had been. In 1851 he collaborated with attorney Robert Morris and activist Lewis Hayden of the Boston Vigilance Committee to gain the release of Shadrach Minkins, a fugitive slave from Virginia who had been arrested in Boston by US Marshals under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The men helped Minkins hide and travel via the Underground Railroad to Canada, where he settled in Montreal. The men were "well-known Boston abolitionists" who were praised for their efforts to obtain Minkins' release. Many Boston residents resisted the 1850 Law, resenting its requirement that officials in free states support slaveholders' efforts to take back slaves.

Walker also worked for equal rights. Blacks in Boston gained integration in city schools for their children in 1855, by a state legislative act after years of lobbying in the city and at the legislature.

Marriage and children

Walker married Hannah Jane Van Vronker on November 15, 1858, in Boston. He was 28 and his bride was 23.Boston Marriages in 1858. Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT. p. 105. Hannah was born in Lowell on October 10, 1835,"Massachusetts, Births and Christenings, 1639–1915," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FZ91-P72 : accessed November 30, 2013), Hannah Jane Van Vronker, Oct 10, 1835. one of Henry and Lucinda Webster Van Vronker's three daughters.Contee, Clarence G. "Edwin G. Walker, Black Leader: Generally Acknowledged Son of David Walker," Negro History Bulletin, 39 (March 1976): 556–59.{{#tag:ref|The transcribed marriage record gives her last name as Van Kronker.|group="nb"}}

The couple had a son named Edwin Eugene Walker born about 1859 died 1891, California; two daughters Georgiana Grace born about 1861 and Eliza Ann born about 1863 and died 1866, Lowell. The family lived with Walker's mother, Eliza Dewson, also recorded as Susan, in Charlestown. Hannah is not living with the family by 1870.1860 Charlestown, 1870 Charlestown and 1880 Boston, U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

Lawyer

Having been inspired by Blackstone's Commentaries, which he consulted while trying to free Minkins in 1851, Walker "read the law", serving as an apprentice at the Georgetown, Massachusetts office of Charles A. Tweed and John Q. A. Griffin. He also continued to run his leatherwork business.{{#tag:ref|Davis said that he studied at Tweed's office in Boston.|group="nb"}} He became the first (or third) black lawyer in the state of Massachusetts when he was admitted to the bar in May 1861 in Suffolk County.{{#tag:ref|Davis and Valle said that he was the first black to be admitted to the bar in the state; Black Past said he was the third.|group="nb"}} He was described as one of Boston's "prominent" attorneys.

Massachusetts General Court

File:1867 chart Massachusetts House of Representatives seat 233.png

In 1866 Walker, representing Middlesex County's Ward 3, and Union Army veteran Charles Lewis Mitchell, representing Boston's Ward 6, were elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. They became the first African Americans ever to win election to the Massachusetts General Court.{{cite book|author=Alton Hornsby Jr.|title=Black America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fB3rQefP8wQC|access-date=April 22, 2013|date=August 31, 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57356-976-7|page=385}} Both men were Republicans.{{cite book|author=George Lowell Austin|title=The History of Massachusetts: From the Landing of the Pilgrims to the Present Time. Including a Narrative of the Persecutions by State and Church in England; the Early Voyages to North America; the Explorations of the Early Settlers; Their Hardships, Sufferings and Conflicts with the Savages; the Rise of the Colonial Power; the Birth of Independence; the Formation of the Commonwealth; and the Gradual Progress of the State from Its Earliest Infancy to Its Present High Position|url=https://archive.org/details/historymassachu00austgoog|access-date=April 23, 2013|year=1875|publisher=B.B. Russell|page=[https://archive.org/details/historymassachu00austgoog/page/n581 530]}}

File:1870 BackBay July4 map byFFuchs JohnWeik detail.png

On Tuesday, November 6, 1866, Claude August Crommelin remarked in his diary about the otherwise quiet election day:

Only the election of two colored men as representatives in the state legislature made some noise here and gave sufficient matter for conversation, as this is the first election of its kind. Messrs. Mitchell and Walker are the first of the 'despised race' who are called to post such as this one. And that a combination of circumstances has caused that Mr. Walker is representing Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue makes the case even more special.{{cite book|author=Claude August Crommelin|title=A Young Dutchman Views Post--Civil War America: Diary of Claude August Crommelin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMET3Gvr20oC|access-date=April 22, 2013|date=March 28, 2011|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00090-3|page=83}}

In fact it was Mitchell who represented Boston's wealthy Beacon Street district, while Walker represented a district in Charlestown with a heavily Irish voting base.{{cite news |last1=Neal |first1=Anthony W. |title=Edwin Garrison Walker: An able lawyer and legislator |url=https://www.baystatebanner.com/2013/07/04/edwin-garrison-walker-an-able-lawyer-and-legislator/ |access-date=8 February 2022 |work=The Bay State Banner |date=4 July 2013}}

As Walker and Mitchell began their one-year terms in the 1867 Massachusetts legislature, the era of post-Civil War Reconstruction was underway. Passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the US Constitution had resulted in the abolition of slavery in 1865, granting full citizenship and protection of the law to freedmen in 1868, and granting suffrage to African-American men to vote and hold public office in 1870. At the same time, states were drafting laws to recognize the new status of freedmen.{{cite book|first=Charles W.|last=Carey|title=African-American Political Leaders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUVXKwkHuaQC&pg=PR7|access-date=April 23, 2013|date=January 1, 2004|publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0780-6 |page=vii}} In the Massachusetts House, Walker opposed the 14th amendment, arguing that its language contained insufficient guarantees against race-based discrimination and disenfranchisement.[https://www.baystatebanner.com/2013/07/04/edwin-garrison-walker-an-able-lawyer-and-legislator/ Edwin Garrison Walker] Neal, Anthony W. "Edwin Garrison Walker: An able lawyer and legislator" Bay State Banner, July 4, 2013

Walker's opposition to the language of the 14th Amendment was part of a larger breach with his fellow Massachusetts Republicans. They did not nominate him for a second term. He joined the Democratic Party, as one of many Boston African Americans to switch parties due to dissatisfaction with the Republicans.

Subsequent political career

Walker was nominated as a state judge by Democratic Governor Benjamin F. Butler in 1883, but the nomination was rejected by the Republican majority in the state legislature. They voted to give the position to George Lewis Ruffin, an African American considered by the Republicans to be "loyal" to their party. Walker was nominated for judgeships three times by the governor but rejected by the Republican-dominated legislature each time. Walker's attempts to hold municipal office met the same fate. In 1888, he was nominated as a tax assessor by Boston's Democratic Mayor Hugh O'Brien, but the nomination was rejected by the Republican-controlled board of aldermen.

In 1885 Walker, with wealthy restaurateur George T. Downing and other black leaders, formed the Negro Political Independence Movement. Walker was elected Colored National League president in 1890. He was nominated for United States president in 1896 by the Negro Party.

Death

Walker died of pneumonia on January 13, 1901, in Boston. Julius Caesar Chappelle, an African-American Massachusetts legislator (1883–1886), was among those who spoke at a memorial held for him and for ex-governor Roger Wolcott (Massachusetts politician) at the Kirk Literary Club, according to The Boston Herald."Colored Race in Mourning, Death of Wolcott and Walker Sincerely Deplored", The Boston Herald, page 9. Tuesday, January 22, 1901.