Please add to your list Thomas Calhoun Walker of Gloucester County. Walker
was born a slave. After freedom came he talked himself into Hampton
Institute and graduated with a law degree. He was such a successful lawyer
that among his paying clients were many whites of the county. He promoted
education and property ownership for blacks, and at his death (1953), he
was the first black man to have his portrait hung in a Virginia courthouse.
See his autobiography: "The Honey-pod Tree: The life Story of Thomas
Calhoun Walker" (New York: The John Day Company,1958). See also: "The
Legend of Gloucester County," Washington Post, Feb. 26, 1984 - C section.
Barbara Farner
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