At the beginning of the 20th century, the Rev. C.T. Walker boldly demanded that America's black citizens have equal status with whites.
A stirring preacher who attracted America's presidents and business leaders such as John D. Rockefeller to hear his sermons, Walker inspired thousands to convert to Christianity. He also formed one of the prominent churches in Augusta while making efforts in both business and journalism. In the process, Charles Thomas Walker became one of the most recognized names in America a century ago.
Born a slave in Hephzibah in 1858, Walker did not feel bitterness, according to the Rev. Silas X. Floyd, a friend, historian and biographer.
"Dr. Walker has the courage which faces difficulties, braves rebuke and ... is not afraid of harsh names and ugly epithets," Floyd wrote in 1902.
Orphaned at age 8 -- his father died a day before he was born, and his mother a year after being granted freedom in 1865 -- Walker was forced to mature beyond his years.
Using the Christian church and his family for support, Walker moved on with his education at schools set up for the children of former slaves.
It wasn't long before his calling to become a minister displaced other ambitions. He entered Augusta Institute -- which later moved to Atlanta to become Morehouse College -- for ministerial training.
Despite his small stature -- he stood 5 feet 6 inches -- Walker was known for his fiery oratory.
After preaching for three years in LaGrange, Ga., he returned to Augusta in 1883. In 1885, then 27, he helped organize Tabernacle Baptist Church, one of the most influential churches founded in Augusta.
Moving to keep the community united and informed, Walker started one of Augusta's first minority newspapers, the Augusta Sentinel , in 1884.
By 1900, Dr. Walker boldly declared that blacks could not hope to escape the evil of racism by migrating north.
"It was a mistake for blacks to leave the South, since prejudice was national and not sectional," he said.
During a speech the same year at New York's Carnegie Hall, the minister outlined the state of African-American affairs.
"The Negro is an American citizen," bellowed the minister to an audience of 8,000. "The amendment to the Constitution did not make us men; God made us men before man made us citizens!"
Such radical turn-of-the century views conflicted with the cautious approach prescribed by the more conservative Booker T. Washington.
Yet Walker continued, mingling his message of equality with converting souls to Jesus Christ. According to newspaper accounts of the time, dozens, sometimes hundreds, at a time would heed the call to change their lives.
Today, through Tabernacle Baptist Church -- the center of Augusta's fledgling civil rights efforts -- and C.T. Walker Magnet School, that work continues.
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