Walter E. Fauntroy
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| Walter Edward Fauntroy | |
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| In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1991 |
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| Preceded by | None (D.C. had no congressional delegate) |
| Succeeded by | Eleanor Holmes Norton |
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| Born | February 6, 1933 Washington, D.C. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Dorothy Simms (1957-present)[1] |
| Profession | Pastor, activist, politician |
| Religion | Baptist |
Walter Edward Fauntroy (born February 6, 1933), pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and a civil rights activist, former member of the United States Congress, and candidate for the 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee[2][3], as well as a human rights activist. His stated life work is to advocate public policy that "declares Good News to the poor, that binds up the broken hearted and sets at liberty them that are bound" in the United States and around the world.
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[edit] Background
The fourth of seven children, Walter Fauntroy was born and raised in Washington, D.C. His mother, Ethel Fauntroy, was a homemaker. His father, William T. Fauntroy, Sr., was a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office. Walter grew up in the Shaw community in Northwest Washington, then as now a poverty-stricken area plagued by crime, drugs, and unemployment. He found a safe haven in the New Bethel Baptist Church just a few blocks from his home. "I didn't understand then that we were living on a plantation," he told the Washington Post , "but I sensed it — the dope, the bootleg liquor, the payoffs to the cops, the general fear of the white man."
He graduated second in his class at Washington's all-black Dunbar High School in 1951, and the members of his church held fund-raising dinners to provide him with a college scholarship. When he graduated from Dunbar in 1952, his church gave him enough money to pay for his first year at Virginia Union University in Richmond. He pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity while at Virginia Union and he graduated from that institution in 1955, with honors and then earned a degree in divinity from Yale.
He is married to the former Ms. Dorothy Simms of Petersburg, Virginia. They have two children: Marvin Keith and Melissa Alice. He is an uncle of Washington, D.C.-based public policy professor, author, and political commentator.
[edit] Civil Rights leader
During his stay at Virginia Union University, Fauntroy met the 22-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., himself an ordained Baptist minister. With so much in common, the two men formed a fast friendship that began with a single all-night discussion of theology. Fauntroy joined King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and upon his return to Washington, DC, became an influential lobbyist for civil rights in Congress. Fauntroy also helped to coordinate the seminal 1963 March on Washington at which King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
After completing his education, Fauntroy became pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church. He returned home with a rather unorthodox view of Christian service that his parishioners immediately embraced. Believing that religion was something more than a Sunday morning pastime, forgotten by half past noon, Fauntroy took part in civil rights demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches — both in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
As director of the Washington Bureau of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Mr. Fauntroy served as D.C. Coordinator of the Historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and coordinator of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965 as well as the Meredith Mississippi Freedom March in 1966. President Johnson appointed him Vice Chairman of the White House Conference on Civil Rights in 1966 and Vice Chairman of the D.C. City Council in 1967. Fauntroy also founded and led the Model Inner City Community Organization (MICCO). This organization, which Fauntroy headed until 1971, used federal grants to improve inner city neighborhoods using black architects, city planners, and construction engineers to design and build homes, schools, stores, and other projects in urban Washington. At one time the budget for MICCO was well over $30 million, a community planning and neighborhood development group in Washington, D.C. that established and began to implement the Shaw Urban Renewal Project.
Because his religious beliefs placed a premium on community service, Fauntroy gravitated toward the political arena. In 1967, he was named vice-chairperson of the Washington City Council, a nine-member body appointed directly by the president of the United States. Fauntroy sat on the city council for two years, resigning when his commitments as director of MICCO began to take all of his time.
[edit] Congressional career
The District of Columbia had no formal representation in Congress before 1970. That year, President Nixon signed a bill giving the District one non-voting delegate to Congress. Fauntroy wanted the job. With the support of his fellow pastors in the city — and with appearances by his friend Coretta Scott King — he defeated two primary opponents who had both spent twice as much money as he did. Because Washington, DC is a heavily Democratic city with a black majority, the Democratic primary election was the important race for the seat. Having won the primary by a substantial margin, Fauntroy easily beat a Republican candidate and was sworn in March 23, 1971, as the congressional delegate from Washington, DC, becoming the first delegate to serve the citizens of the District of Columbia and a member of the United States House of Representatives in almost 100 years.
Although Fauntroy's status in the Congress did not allow him to vote on the House floor, he was allowed a vote in committee and could introduce legislation on any issue. Fauntroy therefore became influential with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) as a liberal with an agenda that included the concerns of inner city residents, the poor, and minorities. Fauntroy's special quest was for home rule — and eventually statehood — for the District of Columbia. Using his considerable political clout, he oversaw legislation that provided for direct election of a mayor and a city council in Washington by 1973. Fauntroy briefly considered running for mayor of Washington himself but instead decided to stay in Congress. He was returned to his office five times over the ensuing years, sometimes with as much as 85 percent of the vote.
In Congress, he was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. He chaired the Caucus in 1981 and led the organization in presenting, for the first time, a budget to be debated by the House. The "Constructive Alternative Budget" was debated on the House floor for two days. He was a member of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, Congressman Fauntroy chaired for six years the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and for four years chaired the Subcommittee on International Development, Finance, Trade and Monetary Policy. He also chaired, for fifteen years, the Bipartisan/Bicameral Task Force on Haiti.
Fauntroy authored the Black Leadership Family Plan For the Unity, Survival and Progress of Black People in 1982. The booklet laid out a strategy for Black social, political, and economic development. On Thanksgiving Eve in 1984 he, Randall Robinson and Dr. Mary Francis Berry, launched the Free South Africa Movement with their arrest at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C.
[edit] Presidential campaign
During 1972 Democratic presidential primaries, Fauntroy and Representative Shirley Chisholm were the first African-Americans to win a presidential primary. However, while Chisholm ran a nationwide campaign and won three states (New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi[4]), Fauntroy campaigned in the D.C. primary alone and won largely uncontested event as a favorite-son candidate with 21,217 (71.78%) votes against 8,343 (28.22%) for unpledged delegates[5].
In 1976, he again participated in the D.C. primary, this time losing to eventual nominee Jimmy Carter; he placed second overall[6].
[edit] Post-Congressional career
Fauntroy stepped down from his seat in Congress in 1990 to run for mayor of Washington, D.C. He was defeated by Sharon Pratt Kelly. The loss was far from devastating for the energetic Fauntroy. He told the Washington Post : "I put together a very careful and thorough plan, but unfortunately that never got over. But I believe that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord." Indeed, Fauntroy returned to his first and constant home, the New Bethel Baptist Church, where he resumed a full-time ministry and rededicated himself to community service.
Fauntroy also founded Walter E. Fauntroy & Associates, a consulting firm that provides lobbying services for a variety of clients. The first and biggest client to sign on with Fauntroy was Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC). Since 1992, Fauntroy has been lobbying Congress to pass legislation to create an "enterprise fund" for South Africa. He has been actively encouraging new private U.S. investment in South Africa as well. "I'm having a great time," Fauntroy told the Washington Post from his new offices on Connecticut Avenue. "The chances are very slim that I would run for local office in the District."
He is president of the National Black Leadership Roundtable (NBLR), the national network vehicle of the Congressional Black Caucus that he founded in 1977. In that capacity, as a part of the NBLR’s Seven Point Program, he is co-chair of the Sudan Campaign, chairman of the Business Enterprise Development, LLC and currently heads up a U.S. based private sector effort to cure extreme poverty in Africa by the year 2025 in pursuit of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The drive is undertaken by the Roundtable in partnership with the Zimbabwe Progress Fund (ZPF) and is known as the Millennium Villages Project. Its focus is upon villages in sub-Saharan Africa.
Robust and athletic through most of his life, Fauntroy was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1993, treated, and cured. He took his condition public to demystify the illness and to assure those who might be afflicted by it that they could be cured. He and his wife, Dorothy, also adopted an abandoned crack baby whom they named Melissa Alice.
[edit] Awards and honors
In recognition of his distinguished record of humanitarian service, both his alma maters, Virginia Union University and Yale University have conferred honorary Doctor of Law Degrees. He also holds honorary degrees from Howard University and Georgetown University Law Center.
The National Urban Coalition granted Fauntroy the Hubert H. Humphrey Humanitarian Award from National Urban Coalition in 1984
[edit] References
- ^ Walter E. Fauntroy
- ^ BLACK IN CAPITAL TO ENTER PRIMARY; Fauntroy to Run May 2 as Favorite-S... - Free Preview - The New York Times
- ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 07, 1972
- ^ Elections
- ^ Our Campaigns - DC US President - D Primary Race - May 02, 1972
- ^ Our Campaigns - DC US President - D Primary Race - May 04, 1976
[edit] External links
- Walter E. Fauntroy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKfauntroy.htm
- Lecture with Dr. Walter E. Fauntroy at NCCU
- Walter E. Fauntroy biography and video interview excerpts by The National Visionary Leadership Project
| Preceded by Vacant since 1875; position last held by Norton Chipman |
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the District of Columbia 1971–1991 |
Succeeded by Eleanor Holmes Norton |
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