City Pulse People Issue 2021: Willard Walker, public servant

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Willard Walker, 86, is the consummate public servant. Raised in Columbus Georgia, he joined the military after graduating from the historically Black Albany State University. He has worked as a mathematics teacher; with the Birmingham, Alabama, Urban League; the Mott Foundation; for four Lansing mayors; and four departments of Michigan State government. He is working with the city to create lasting policies on diversity and racial justice in city government. He has lived on McPherson Street on Lansing’s west side five decades.

How did you end up in Lansing?

I left the Urban League in Birmingham to go to graduate school at Michigan State University in 1969. I knew about their football teams and Bubba Smith, Gene Washington and George Webster, but the head of the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Dan Kruger, sent me an application. I was the first Black student in industrial relations and it was a unique experience. MSU didn’t really want me there. I was married with two children, and my wife stayed behind in Birmingham and I lived in Case Hall, the epicenter for black activism.

Did your penchant for civil rights continue in your state employment?

It was always a staple of my work. We were doing pioneering work in job training and rehabilitation to address issues of equality and to get minority kids of color into job training programs. I left the state for the Mott Foundation in Flint, where I worked for eight years.

Mayor Terry McKane then asked me to chair the Martin Luther King Commission. I wasn’t sure about doing that, but my grandmom always told me have good manners, so I met with him and ended up being the first chair.

How did you get talked into working for the City of Lansing?

I got a call from Mayor David Hollister asking me to join his team. I was tired of commuting, my kids were getting ready to go to college and all my connections were in Lansing.

You’ve had a 45-year association with youth football as coach and administrator for the Kappa Express football team. How do you feel about that?

It was another step in my own development. I grew up on the playground, a segregated black playground. So much of our life was built around the schools. It was sort of learned behavior, and a lot of that can be attributed to my grandmom who raised my family. My father and mother both died young and I really didn’t know them. My grandmom would go to our games and got involved in the PTA.

It was hard to not learn lessons about how you wanted to live your life. My many engagements in the community come from the playground and my grandmom.

One of the reasons I moved to the Westside was, like my grandmom, I could walk over to the kid’s school; first Main St. School and later Sexton High School. The other was I needed to see people who looked like me. Back then that’s what I needed. Being on the Westside, despite living in a house with a deed that said not to sell to a black person, I had the privilege to meet a lot of people like Bill Lett and Dick Lett and to listen and learn.

When Kappa Psi showed an interest in forming a football team, I became the first coach. We won a lot of games, but it was more than football. It was about building character; it’s about giving back, and I found coaches who understood that. I was following the path I personally traveled.

Over the 45 years, you helped coach thousands of young boys. Do you think you had an impact on them?

I’d like to think I helped build character. They still come by. I tell them if you have the time come by. I know that my grandmom would be pleased with me.

In 2018, a new stadium, in Risdale Park, was named in your honor. How did you feel?

It was a great honor. At first, I didn’t know how to take it, and I didn’t know anything about it. It was a total surprise. My wife, Victoria, was a cheerleader coach for Kappa Express [youth football], and behind the scenes she quietly worked with the city to make it happen.

The dedication was like a reunion and now I feel responsible for it and we have a lot of work to do to make it more than a football field.

(This interview was conducted, edited and condensed by Bill Castanier.)