Ronald Walters spent his life teaching about the importance of racial equality and advocating for ethnic tolerance as a civil rights movement pioneer and professor emeritus at this university. On Friday, he died of cancer at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was 72.
“He was just a sweetheart, a very humble man,” said longtime friend Amy Billingsley. “He was just always concerned about civil rights and the condition of justice for all people.”
In his early years, Walters launched what many historians believe to be the first lunch-counter sit-in, in his hometown of Wichita, Kan. during 1958, according to The Washington Post.
He organized the sit-in with his cousin at a local drugstore. Young blacks were refused service for days on end, sitting in silence while white patrons jeered. Three weeks later, the drugstore owner caved.
“Serve them,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “I’m losing too much money.”
In 2006, nearly 50 years after his act of defiance, Walters received a medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“He was just a real model of how leadership should work,” said Don Kettl, dean of the public policy school. “The importance of leadership and the kind of leadership he created on a day-to-day basis are all things that will have a very long legacy [at this university].”
Walters went on to become an adviser to Jesse Jackson during the civil rights leader’s two presidential campaigns. He graduated from Fisk University in 1963 and earned his master’s in African studies and a doctorate in international studies from American University.
Walters joined this university’s department of government and politics in 1996 after teaching at Syracuse University, Brandeis University and Howard University in the late 1960s and 1970s.
“As a good department of political science, we need to serve the interests of undergraduates,” said Mark Lichbach, chairman of the government and politics department. “We’ve retained Ron Walters’ legacy by making sure we maintain a curriculum of race and ethnicity.”
As a senior faculty member, Walters taught classes in race relations, focusing on politics and voting. With an inherent interest in promoting leadership among black youth, Walters was the director of the African American Leadership Institute — a community outreach program dedicated to the advancement of black adults and youth.
“Ron brought the issue of race and ethnicity into the department of government and politics,” Lichbach said. “He was a pioneer. People weren’t doing that sort of thing when we first started out.”
Walters was named professor emeritus in 2009.
“He was just a very fine gentleman,” Lichbach added. “I know that he was one of our very finest teachers. He spent a lot of time with students. He cared about students. We shared a belief in liberal, undergraduate education.”
Walters lived in Silver Spring. He is survived by his wife Patricia Walters, three brothers and two sisters.
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