Civil rights giant Wyatt Tee Walker’s life and legacy will be celebrated at a University of Richmond symposium next month.

Open to the public without charge, the symposium will be 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, in the Jepson Alumni Center’s Robins Pavilion.

The program will feature a panel discussion on the late Dr. Walker’s central role in the Civil Rights Movement as chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and in creating a model for community development as a pastor in New York for nearly four decades.

The program is the first of a series that the university plans to host on “Contested Spaces: Race, Nation and Conflict.”

The Walker symposium will feature Dr. Joseph Evans, dean of the Morehouse School of Religion. He is to deliver the keynote address on the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign of which Dr. Walker was a key, behind-the-scenes organizer. Dr. Evans is to speak at 6 p.m.

The program is scheduled to begin with a 3 p.m. panel discussion on Dr. Walker’s multiple roles in fighting segregation, initially in Petersburg and later across the country, as well as his efforts to uplift Harlem through the creation of affordable housing, jobs and small business growth during his tenure as the spiritual leader of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ.

The panelists are to include Dr. Corey D.B. Walker, vice president and dean of the Virginia Union University School of Theology, and the Rev. Bernard “Chris” Dorsey, president of the Disciples of Christ Higher Education and Leadership Ministries.

The panel also will include two UR faculty members, Dr. Laura Browder, Tyler and Alice Haynes Professor of American Studies, and Dr. Thad Williamson, an associate professor of leadership studies and of philosophy, politics, economics and law.

The program also will include a 60-minute reception between the panel and Dr. Evans’ speech.

Attendees also will be able to view the collection of papers, documents and other items Dr. Walker donated to the university before his death in January at age 89.

Details and registration: https://as.richmond.edu/about-school/programs/community/themed-years/walker-symposium.html