Michael Walker received a call around midnight from his older brother, Robert Walker, asking if he wanted to ride with him from Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Atlanta. It was summer 1990, and Nelson Mandela was embarking on a “Freedom Tour” in the United States following his release from prison after 27 years. This was an opportunity of a lifetime for Robert, who had idolized Nelson Mandela all his life.
Michael agreed to join the trip, and the brothers set out on the six-hour drive to Atlanta, arriving the morning of the program. Inside Big Bethel AME Church, Robert and Michael’s proximity to the stage allowed them to see figures like Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King and Jesse Jackson up close. When Nelson Mandela arrived, in that surreal moment, the Mississippi brothers felt like they were in the presence of Black royalty, Michael compared.
“(Robert) had a lot of reverence and respect for Nelson Mandela and Medgar Evers. Those were two people that he kinda modeled himself after because he was willing to sacrifice everything for his people, and those two men did. He always spoke very highly of those two,” Michael Walker told the Mississippi Free Press.
Over the drive back to Mississippi, Robert passionately gushed about Mandela and his history, a subject for which he had deep love. Michael remembers Robert, the oldest of 12 children, introducing him to Frederick Douglas’ biography as well as books on Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey. Michael read all these books and, in turn, later passed them down to his children.
“He felt it was important to know your history,” Michael said of his brother, who passed away in July 2025.
Michael called his brother “amazingly unique,” someone he admired and saw as another father figure. He described Robert as organized and business-minded, noting that Robert was a good writer and an excellent orator. Robert taught Michael how to be a good public speaker. His older brother—who taught Michael how to be a good public speaker—was quiet himself most of the time. Although he was considered famous, he didn’t let that kill his humility, Michael said.
“Well, my dad was humble. Robert Walker was humble. The memories of my dad are sitting around always with a Bible open, newspaper reading. He didn’t say much. And Robert, for the most part, was like that,” Michael described.
He appreciated how Robert carried himself and how much he valued family, aspects that he took from their father, Robert Walker, Sr. Michael tried to model himself after both his father and oldest brother, he said.
“(Robert) had a great deal of respect for daddy and how remarkable he was to have only had a third-grade education,” Michael said. “Yet he pushed 12 children to graduate from high school, and over half of us wound up going to college.”
Those who remember Robert recall his positivity and his smile. Ever a problem solver, Robert Walker would always try to find the best solution that worked for everyone, his loved ones said, calling him an example of people who still altruistically do good for the sake of others, rather than for personal gain.
“When you get an opportunity to do good, you do good, and you pass it on. And that’s the legacy that we have to maintain,” Michael said.
‘Makes Me Wanna Do More’
In his free time, Robert Walker researched his family tree, tracing his roots back to Virginia, from which James and Del Walker were the earliest Walkers in his family he could find documented. They were former slaves who eventually migrated to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the family has remained for eight generations and counting.
“Because of him, we know so much more about our family. … I guess it’s the natural curiosity that lies in some of us,” Toni Terrett, his cousin, told the Mississippi Free Press.
In 1988, Robert Walker made history as the first Black mayor of Vicksburg, winning a special election and winning the 1989 re-election. Terrett was young at the time, but from what she can recall, it was an uphill battle for her older cousin. He accomplished a lot of things during his time as mayor, but he received his share of backlash as well.
“ I remember seeing headlines about his accomplishments, but also headlines about resistance to some of the things that he was trying to do,” Terrett said. “I know that there was one thing that he was trying to do to bring some economic growth to the area, and there was a lot of pushback.”
After his first term as mayor, he ran for re-election in 1993 but lost to Joe Loviza. Taking a break from politics, Walker decided to pursue his love for education and history, becoming a history professor at Tougaloo College.
Terrett was also attending the school at the time, oftentimes bumping into him on campus and having quick conversations. Because their last names were Walker and students often saw them conversing, they assumed Robert was her father, but he was always quick to jokingly tell her peers that they were cousins in the most unique way.
“He would chime in and be like, ‘Toni’s dad and I are the sons of two brothers, so what does that make us?’” she remembered him saying.
Walker was a bit of a jokester, she said, often telling jokes that could go over someone’s head if they weren’t paying attention. In addition to being a devoted father to his daughters and a loving husband to his wife, Sylvia, he was a man of faith and a devoted member of Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church in Byram, where he lived.
“He was always that cousin (who) when you saw him, you just kind of jumped to attention. He was always gonna show you concern and ask questions about what may be going on in your life,” Terrett said.
One of her last conversations with Walker involved planning their family reunion. They were throwing around ideas about doing a family tailgate, and Terrett needed his blessing as the unofficial leader of the family.
“ I told him about the idea, and he expressed his concerns about making sure we had accommodations for the elderly and so forth,” she explained. “And then from there he said, ‘OK, now you can call Bebe,’ who is his younger sister, and ‘Y’all go ahead and get it together. I’ll help in whatever capacity I need to help with.’”
Robert passed away a few weeks later on July 29, 2025, at the age of 81. Though her big cousin is gone, his life and legacy as a historian, speaker, civil-rights activist and mayor have enhanced her desire to continue serving others, Terrett said.
“There’s a lot of things that leaders do that are not always publicized—and not that they need to be publicized—but it just makes me wanna do more, try to be more helpful and more effective in a way that impacts people’s lives,” she said.
‘The Love They Had’
Born on Jan. 17, 1944, to Robert Walker, Sr., and Anna Mae Weeks Walker in Vicksburg, Robert Walker, Jr., graduated from Rosa A. Temple High School and then attended Jackson State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and political science in 1966.
Two years later, Robert graduated with master’s degrees in history and political science from the University of Mississippi, becoming the first Black person to earn a graduate degree from the institution. After college, Robert was active with the Mississippi State Conference of NAACP branches where he marched, talked and strategized with civil-rights figures such as Aaron Henry, Dr. Gilbert Mason and Winson Hudson to promote justice and equality for Black Americans in the state.
He was also a Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP, the only Vicksburg native to serve in the position. Around 1976, he became the NAACP Vicksburg Branch President and collaborated with leaders of the Civil Rights Movement there. They stressed efforts against police brutality and worked for education, better housing for people of color and adequate representation for Black citizens in the government.
Robert worked at the federal, state, county and municipal levels of government. He was elected twice to the Warren County Board of Supervisors in District 3 and was appointed to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors. In 1988, he was elected mayor of Vicksburg in a special election, becoming the first Black person to take the position. In total, he served three terms: from 1988 to 1989, from 1989 to 1993, and from 1997 to 2001.
“He always wanted to do things to improve the community,” Michael Walker said. “Growing up during the ’50s and the ’60s, he had to see some of the things that happened: the white-only bathroom and the white-only water fountain.”
“He wanted to make society better for his family,” he continued. “I’m pretty sure he thought about his little brothers and his wife and daughter, so he wanted to make a difference. That’s what motivated him to run for office.”
During his tenure as mayor, he appointed the city’s first Black police chief and Black municipal judge, helped launch Head Start and helped arrange to open a clinic for indigent HIV/AIDS patients in Vicksburg and Warren County. He had the city’s seal and flag redesigned to replace the three bales of cotton with an image of city hall.
In 1989, he secured $500,000 from the State of Mississippi and raised an additional $700,000 from the private sector to develop a $1.2 million, 13-unit, housing development called the Initiative. The national award-winning development provided on-site daycare, transportation, educational and job training components for parents. It was the first of its kind in the state.
His toughest challenge was a 16-year fight to get a Civil War monument honoring the service of the 51st and 53rd U.S. Colored Troops in the Vicksburg National Military Park. The city unveiled the statue on Feb. 14, 2004, the first of its kind in the National Park System.
“He believed in preserving history. He did a lot of research. I know he was writing some books, and I hate that he didn’t get a chance to finish them,” Michael Walker said. “He was working on a family history book, a book about the history of the Barber of Natchez. I think it was a Black barber that he went back and did some research on.”
He partnered with Hinds Community College and established a program for city employees who wanted to earn their GED. Robert oversaw the development, publication and distribution of “Can You Hear Their Voices?”—the city’s first African American brochure developed for tourism and the local community. In 2005, he served as Mayor Frank Melton’s chief of administrative office. In 2019, the city of Vicksburg renamed the Municipal Annex building after him, now called the Robert M. Walker building.
His first teaching job was with the Mississippi Action for Progress Head Start Program in 1965. Four years later, he was the first Black instructor to teach at the University of Mississippi, where he attended graduate school. Later, Robert taught at Tougaloo College, Rust College and Jackson State University.
Robert was baptized at the Locust Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Vicksburg, where he served as a deacon and later as chairman of deacon’s ministry at Pleasant Green Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP, Jackson State University National Alumni Association, and the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
He is survived behind his wife, Sylvia Stalls Walker; his three daughters, Tondia Walker-Lewis, Robin Walker-Hart, and Marlena Victoria Walker-Redick; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren; four sisters and five brothers.
Robert’s father took in his cousin Ernest Walker after his father passed when he was 6 years old, embracing Ernest as if he was his own and raising him alongside his children. Ernest and Robert Walker developed a close relationship that was more like brothers than first cousins.
“I would call him. He helped me out, and I’ll talk, and I helped him out. Sometimes it’s hard to find people that have the same values you have. … I’ve been married 53 years, and I think he was married for 60 years, then to stay married in America and stay faithful to your wife and your kids. That to me is important, you know?” Ernest told the Mississippi Free Press.
Ernest said Robert and Sylvia were a unit, the type of situation where if you saw him, you’d always see her and vice versa. Ernest remembers a rare time Robert attended an event alone, a Medgar Evers event in 2024, as Sylvia had just undergone hip-replacement surgery.
“He was talking, and in the middle of his speech he said, ‘I’m gonna have to cut it short ’cause Sylvia is always out there in the audience, crossing her fingers when she thinks I’ve talked too long. Although she’s not here, I’m gonna be obedient.’ … I thought that was really cute,” he reminisced.
After the news of Robert’s passing, Ernest and his wife went over to their home to visit his widow and offer their condolences and support. She ended up sharing a story with the couple about something Robert said two weeks before his passing.
One particular day, Sylvia and one of their daughters left the house to run errands. When Robert returned, the house was empty and quiet. When she did return home, Robert told her: “I came home, and you wasn’t here. It just bugged me. I want you to know that if one of us has to go, I want to go first ’cause I don’t know if I can live if you go first and leave me here by myself,” Robert told Sylvia.
“That was really the love that they had,” Ernest said.
‘From Once We Came’
Eric Coleman took Robert Walker’s world history class at Tougaloo College as a freshman in 1993. Like his instructor, Coleman had a deep love of history and fascination with things that happened before him. He would often sit and listen to older people talk when he was a child, he recalled.
“That’s one of the things I remember most about his class: It was the way he taught history because I learned about Mansa Musa and Mali from his class,” Coleman told the Mississippi Free Press. “At the same time he was educating us, he was also empowering us and really helping us to understand from once we came.”
The Rolling Forks, Mississippi, native compared Walker’s teaching style to hooping, a rhythm that Black preachers use to channel emotions through their words. He was charismatic in his delivery, immediately grabbing students’ attention. Coleman said his lessons were more like delivering the word than spouting historical facts.
He also described Walker’s aura as one that was “familiar,” adding that this trait stood out in particular in a conversation they had about Vicksburg once. Coleman was explaining his family ties to the area, bringing up family members while using their nicknames.
“I mentioned Aunt Mamie, and he was like, ‘I know Mamie. I know Gus. They lived down under the river,’ and he knew exactly where they lived,” Coleman recalled. “I was amazed that he knew them just by me mentioning a family nickname, and he knew them well enough that he could describe their personalities.”
Coleman graduated from Tougaloo College in 1997, finding a career in the tech industry after switching his major from math to computer science. He didn’t keep in touch with his former professor, but news would trickle in every now and then about Robert Walker’s work in the community.
A social-media post that Toni Terrett made on Facebook informed Coleman of Walker’s passing, which shocked the former student and sparked a flood of memories from his time in Walker’s classroom.
“ I think his legacy will be that he was really a civil, civil servant through and through,” Coleman said. “I don’t know of many other politicians who you can truly say they lived what their motto was. And I kind of feel like that is going to be part of his legacy, for sure, because I couldn’t have been the only one that he had that type of impact on.”
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