About Bishop Walker

As the first African American Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, The Right Rev. John Thomas Walker took to heart his parents' foundational belief that education was the door to opportunity. Pastor, teacher, cathedral builder, civil rights leader, ecumenist, social justice pioneer, urban missionary, relief worker, statesman—Bishop Walker brought together races, faiths, and nations in the common cause of understanding and brotherhood. As the first teacher of African American descent at St. Paul 's School, Concord, New Hampshire, he taught and organized the education of the world's elite as well as the nation's most easily forgotten children. As a priest of the church, he drew on his own challenging life experiences, growing up in Georgia, to explain why he worked unceasingly, to assure that future generations of African American students would find the doors of every educational institution in America open to them. Often working behind the scenes, he shared his radical belief—with presidents, world leaders, and the ordinary people—that our broken world can yet be restored. He always remembered the children and their role in our world's future.

In honor of his life, and as witness to the work which allowed so many to have a better life, it is only right and fitting that an Episcopal school for boys in Southeast Washington, D.C. be named the Bishop John T. Walker School.