A. T. Walden | |
|---|---|
 Clarence Mitchell Jr. (seated, bottom left),William Holmes Borders (seated, bottom center), and Walden (seated, bottom right), with 3 unknown standing men, 1950. | |
| Born | Austen Thomas Walden (1885-04-12)April 12, 1885 |
| Died | July 2, 1965(1965-07-02) (aged 80) Atlanta |
| Alma mater | Atlanta University |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Years active | 1919-1963 |
| Organization | Atlanta Negro Voters League |
| Political party | Republican |
| Partner | Mary Ellen Denner (1918-65) |
| Children | 2 |
Austen Thomas Walden, also known asA. T. Walden (April 12, 1885 — July 2, 1965)[1] was an American lawyer andcivil rights leader. In 1964, he was appointed byIvan Allen Jr. as a municipal judge, the first black judge to be appointed in the state of Georgia sinceReconstruction.
Austen Thomas Walden[2] was born inFort Valley, Georgia on April 12, 1885. His parents, Jennie Tomlin and Jeff Walden, had been children whenemancipated from slavery after theAmerican Civil War.[3]
In 1907, Walden graduated fromAtlanta University, ahistorically black college. Because of segregation, Walden used a Georgia "out-of-state scholarship" and went to Michigan. He earned his law degree from theUniversity of Michigan Law School in 1911.[4]
Walden practiced law inMacon, Georgia before he joined the US Army in 1917 and fought inWorld War I. Walden was commissioned as a captain and served as an assistantjudge-advocate. He was honorably discharged in 1919, then he moved toAtlanta to practice law.[1]
In May 1918, Walden married Mary Ellen Denner, a public school teacher fromBaltimore. They had two daughters, Jenelsie and Austella.[4]
As an attorney, Walden represented racially persecuted middle-class African Americans.[5]
Walden also defended in a federal legal suit, lasting six years, which gained equal pay for black public school teachers in Atlanta in 1943.[6] In the early 1900s, theAtlanta Board of Education had raised salaries of white teachers by cutting those of blacks.[7] Walden, alongside theNAACP, filed suit in federal district court on behalf of a black teacher.[7]
Walden was described as having a "pragmatic civil rights" vision that was less confrontational than that of the national office of the NAACP.[8]
Walden representedHorace Ward in 1952 in the first lawsuit in the state in federal court for a black seeking admission to theUniversity of Georgia. Ward later served as counsel for students in a 1961 suit that successfully gained them admission to the University of Georgia. He was later appointed as a federal judge.[9]
Walden started as aRepublican and served as chair of the Republican Party executive committee fromGeorgia's 5th congressional district.[10] Walden also worked with theDemocratic Party, and worked abipartisanship in theAtlanta Negro Voters League, which he cofounded alongside RepublicanJohn Wesley Dobbs on July 7, 1949.[11] Walden was also a leader of the All-Citizens Registration Committee.[6][12] While leading the organizations, number of black registered voters from 1,800 in 1910 to 25,000 by 1939.[1]
In 1962, Walden was elected to the State Democratic Committee of Georgia. In 1963, he was appointed as a Georgia delegate to theDemocratic National Convention. Walden, along withLeroy Johnson, were the first blacks to participate in a Georgia Democratic Convention delegation. That year, he was appointed by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy as a member of theAmerican Battle Monuments Commission.[1]
In 1964, Walden was appointed as the first black judge in the state afterReconstruction; Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. appointed him as an alternate judge of the municipal courts of Atlanta.[1]
Walden died in Atlanta on July 2, 1965. Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. 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."[13]
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