It's even hard for Charles Walker Jr. His conversation is filled with references to his father, the state Senate majority leader who helped redraw Georgia's congressional map last year.

That 12th Congressional District map put Augusta in the center of a majority Democratic district and put the younger Mr. Walker in the race. After beating six other Democrats in the primary, he's in a bitter campaign battle with Republican Max Burns of Sylvania.

Champ Walker's account of his early years is reminiscent of his father's oft-repeated tales of growing up a sharecropper's son.

"I was born in the projects in southside off of Old Savannah Road while my father was in the Navy," Champ Walker said. "It was what they call on the other side of the tracks.

"Most people consider it a really, really rough area, but it was the place where I was born and my grandmother stayed, and I eventually moved to Eastview, what they call the Bottoms, downtown, East Boundary."

He attended the private Immaculate Conception Catholic School while his father, then out of the Navy, worked two jobs at the post office and pursued a degree in accounting and business administration from Augusta College, he said.

Charles "Champ" Walker Jr. beat six opponents in the Democratic primary, but he is now locked in a harsh battle for the 12th Congressional District. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/FILE

"While I was living in Eastview, my father took a job with the Human Relations Commission," he said. "He was brought in to bridge the racial divide between corporate white Augusta and the black community."

The Walkers began getting bomb threats after his father learned that several corporations in Augusta discriminated against blacks and other minorities by putting a dot at the top of their job applications, he said.

"And as a result of that, that's when all my father's troubles started in Augusta," he said. "And I grew up around that."

He also grew up in business, working the cash registers in his father's stores, he said.

Charles Walker Sr.'s first shopping plaza, Reklaws on Milledgeville Road, was a "phenomenal success," his son said, and he eventually opened seven more convenience stores.

Champ Walker attended Westside High School, where he played basketball. He went to Fort Valley State University, where he opened a convenience store in his room and ran successfully for freshman class president.

And he became a father at 18.

"And I came back home because I needed to take care of my daughter," he said. "My father told me that I had gotten into this situation and I needed to be a man.

"I was bitter at first, but I came back home and I got a job at the Recreation Department cutting grass. Forty acres, push lawn mower, and I didn't like that. But I did it because I needed to take care of my child."

He married his daughter's mother, Wren, when he was 21.

In 1987, he opened the DMZ, a biracial, nonalcoholic teenage club on Broad Street in downtown Augusta. Almost a year into the venture, he had a "falling out" with some of his business partners and had his first encounter with what he considered racism, he said.

"Some of my friends that I went to high school with turned on me for no reason, so I was bitter for a while," he said.

In August 1988, Champ Walker had the first of four brushes with the law when he was charged with leaving the scene of an accident with damages in Columbia County. His father bailed him out. Although he had hit a parked car head-on, the charge was dismissed by the district attorney's office with the notation that he had hit a "mailbox," according to police and court records.

During an Oct. 10 interview with The Augusta Chronicle, Champ Walker denied leaving the scene and being arrested.

Between December 1990 and August 1991, he was arrested three more times in Richmond County - on charges of shoplifting, driving with a suspended license and interfering with a police officer, according to police and court records.

Then his life changed.

"I found the Lord," he said. "I started studying the Bible daily. This was back in '95. And I realized that humans are basically selfish, and unless they renew their minds and trust him we typically do what's best for us. And when I discovered that, my life changed."

He and his wife marketed a line of clothing, one of several businesses after the teen club venture. For a while he operated the now-closed B.L.'s Country Kitchen on Laney-Walker Boulevard, a facility renovated with federal tax money.

Champ Walker acknowledged the financial difficulties in his businesses, including judgments for taxes and liens. Most have been paid within the past year. He and his wife also lost property they owned on Wrightsboro Road to foreclosure in 1997.

For a while, he was the chief operating officer of his father's company, the Walker Group. Two years ago, he started Bright Ideas, a company that seeks investors for entrepreneurs.

Given his choice of topics to discuss, Champ Walker chose media bias.

"I think it's absolutely critical, like The Chronicle and the (Metropolitan) Spirit," he said. "There's a lot of divisive issues out here, and the way the stories are printed, they're biased. And I think it's a cultural bias, from simply not understanding."

He complained of "negative" comments in The Augusta Chronicle about his reluctance to debate Mr. Burns.

"That was totally off-base and unfair," he said. "Max Burns missed three debates. They're very biased. And it's unwarranted. But guess what? We're up for the challenge. And I stand tall."

CHARLES W. WALKER JR.

AGE: 34

OCCUPATION: Businessman, owner of Bright Ideas

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Richmond County Personnel Board

EDUCATION: Attended Fort Valley State College; earned a two-year degree from Georgia Military Institute

HOBBIES: Reading; spending time with his wife and daughters

FAMILY: Wife, Wren; three daughters, Paris, 16; Jazney, 12; and Sidney, 10

RELIGION: Beulah Grove Baptist Church; pastor-in-training through the church and the Atlanta-based Interdenominational Theology Center

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Sunday, October 20, 2002 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle