"Walter Edward Fauntroy" (February 6,1933)

Is the pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington,D.C.,and a civil rights activist.He is also a former member of the United States Congress and was a candidate for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination,as well as a human rights activists.His stated life work to advocate public policy that "declares Good News to the poor,that binds up the broken hearted and sets liberty that are bound"in the United States and around the world.The fourth of seven children,Walter was born and raised in Washington,D.C..His mother,Ethel Fauntroy,was a homemaker.His father,William T.Fauntroy,Sr.,was a clerk in the U.S.Patent Office.Walter grew up in the Shaw Community in Northwest Washington,then a poverty- stricken,area plagued by crime,drugs,and unemployment.He found a safe haven in the New Bethel Baptist Church just a few blocks from his home.He graduated second in his class at Washington's all-black Dunbar High School in 1951,and the members of his church held fund-raising dinners to provide him with a college scholarship.When he graduated from Dunbar in 1952,his his church gave him money to pay for his first year at Virginia Union University in Richmond.He pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity while at Virginia Union,and he graduated from there in 1955,with honors,and then earned a degree in divinity from Yale.During his stay at Virginia Union University,Walter met 22-year-old Martin Luther King Jr.,himself an ordained Baptist minister.With so much in common,the two men formed a fast friendship that began with a single all-night discussion of theology.Walter joined Martin Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and upon his return to Washington,D.C.,became an influential lobbyist for civil rights in Congress.Walter also helped to coordinate the seminal 1963 March on Washington at which Martin gave his famous "I Have a Dream"speech.After completing his education Walter became pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church.He returned home with a rather unorthodox view of Christian service that his parishioners immediately embraced.Believing that religion was something more than a Sunday morning past time,forgotten by half past noon,Walter took part in civil rights of demonstrations,sit-ins,and marches,both in Washington,D.C.,and elsewhere.As director of the Washington Bureau of Dr King's Southern Leadership Conference,Walter served as D.C. Coordinator of the Historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and Coordinator of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965 as well as the Meredith Mississippi Freedom March in 1966.President Johnson appointed him Vice Chairman of the White House Conference on Civil Rights in 1966 and Vice Chairman of the D.C. City Council in 1967.He also founded and led the Model Inner City Community Organization (MICCO). This organization,which Walter headed until 1971,used federal grants to improve inner city neighbors using black architects,city planners,and construction engineers,to design and build homes,schools,stores,and other projects in urban Washington.At one time the budget for MICCO was well over $30 million,a community planning and neighborhood development group in Washington, D.C.,that established and began to implement the Shaw Urban Renewal Project.Because of his religious had no formal representation in Congress before 1970.That year,President Nixon signed a bill giving the District one non-voting delegate to Congress.Walter wanted the job.With the support of his fellow pastors,in the city and with appearances by his friend Coretta Scott King-he defeated two primary opponents who had both spent twice as much money as he did.Because Washington,DC IS a heavily Democratic city with a black majority,the Democratic primary elections was the important race for the seat.Having won the primary by a substantantial margin,Walter easily beat Republican John A. Nevius and other candidates,including members Julius Hobson of the D.C. Statehood Party and Douglas E. Moore,who ran as an independent.Walter was sworn in March 23,1971,becoming the first delegate to represent the citizens of the District of Columbia as a member of the United States House of Representatives in almost 100 years.His status in the Congress did not allow him to vote on the House floor,he was allowed a vote in committee and could introduce legislation on any issue.Walter therefore became influential with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) as a liberal with an agenda that included the concerns of inner city residents,the poor,and minorities.Walter special quest was for home rule-and eventually statehood-for the District of Columbia.Using his considerable political clout,he oversaw legislation that provided for direct election of a mayor and a city council in Washington by 1973.Walter briefly considered running for mayor of Washington himself but instead decided to stay in Congress.He returned to his office five times over the ensuing years,sometimes with as much as 85 percent of the vote.In congress,he was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.Walter the Caucus in 1981 and led the organization in presenting,for the first time,a budget to be debated by the House.The "Constructive Alternative Budget"was debated on the House floor for two days.He was a member of the House banking.Fiance and urban Affairs Committee,Congressman Fauntroy chaired for six years the Subcommittee on Demostic Monetary Policy and for four years chaired the Subcommittee on international Development,Fiance,Trade and Monetary Policy.He also chaired,for fifteen years,the Bipartisan/Bicameral Task Force on Haiti.Walter authored the Black Leadership Family Plan For the Unity,Survival and Progress of Black People in 1982. The booklet laid out a strategy for Black social,political,and economic development.On Thanksgiving Eve in 1984 he, Randall Robinson and Dr.Mary Francis Berry,launched the Free South Africa Movement with their arrest at the South African Embassy in Washington,D.C.During the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries,Walter and Representative Shirley Chisholm were the first African-Americans to win a presidential primary.However,while Shirley ran a nationwide  campaign and won three states (New Jersey,Louisiana and Mississippi),Walter campaigned in the D.C. primary alone and won largely uncontested event as favorite-son candidate with 21,217(71.78%) votes against 8,343 (28.22%) for unfledged delegates.In 1976,he again participated in the D.C. primary,this time losing to eventual nominee Jimmy Carter;he placed second overall.Walter stepped down from his seat in Congress in 1990 to run for mayor of Washington,D.C.,he was defeated by Sharon Pratt Kelly. Walter rebounded from defeat.He told the Washington Post."I put together a very careful and thorough plan,but unfortunately that never got over."But i believe that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord,"indeed,Walter returned to the New Bethel Baptist Church,where he resumed a full-time ministry and rededicated himself to community service.Walter also founded Walter E. Fauntroy & Associates, a consulting firm that provides lobbying services for a variety of clients.The first and biggest client to sign on with Walter was Nelson Mandel's African Congress (ANC).Since 1992,he has been lobbying Congress to pass legislation to create an "enterprise fund"for South Africa.He has been actively encouraging new private U.S. investment in South Africa as well."I'm having a great time,"Walter told the Washington Post for his new offices on Connecticut Avenue."The chances are very slim that i would run for local office in the District."He is president of the National Black Leadership Roundtable (NBLR),the national network vehicle of the Congressional Black Caucus that he founded in 1977.In that capacity,as part of the NBLR'S Seven Point Program,he is co-chair of the Sudan Campaign,chairman of the Business Enterprise Development,LLC and currently heads up a U.S. based private sector to cure extreme poverty in Africa by the 2025 in pursuit of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.The drive is undertaken by the Roundtable in partnership with the Zimbabwe Progress Fund (ZPF) and is known as the Millennium Villages Project.Its focus is upon villages in sub-Saharan Africa.IN 2005,along with fellow former African-American Democratic congressman,Reverend Floyd Flake,he joined with U.S. Representative Walter Jones (R-NC) to support the Houses of Worship Freedom of Speech Restoration Act (H,R.),which would have allowed tax-exempt religious institutions to engage more directly in current politics.