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/ i Celebration OF A LIFE OF SERVICE & FULFILLED DREAMS By Brother F. Romall Smalls
he news out of Mississippi last winter of the December 1,1999 passing of Dr. Walter Washington, the beloved educator, power broker, former president of Alcorn State University and 24th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., spread throughout this international Brotherhood like the approaching cloak of night. The word appeared across countless computer screens as sorrowful e-mails, and traveled on as unwanted late night telephone calls and quiet conversations. "He was a man that produced results. His funeral was like a history lesson," said Brother Rickey L. Thigpen, immediate past president of Alpha Epsilon Lambda Chapter in Jackson, Mississippi. "I remember the current president of Alcorn saying at Brother Washington's funeral, 'On that day a huge oak tree fell on the campus of Alcorn State and the reverberation was felt around the world.' And I think that statement says it all," said Brother Thigpen, who further explained that Brother Washington served as his mentor and groomed him for leadership in the chapter shortly after he joined Alpha Epsilon Lambda alumni chapter fresh out of Mississippi Valley State University's Zeta Phi Chapter. Born on July 13, 1923 to the Reverend Kemp Washington, a Baptist minister and homemaker Mable Washington in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, Walter Washington was educated in the racially segregated public schools of the southwestern plains of rural Mississippi. He was the youngest of six children according to his widow Dr. Carolyn C. Washington. "We met when we were freshmen at Tougaloo College in 1944. He and a friend were the first to go to college from his town," said Dr. Washington, a retired Social Science professor at Alcorn State University and 50-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. "He wanted to be whatever was high, he was always grasping for something higher," she said of the ambitious young man that was her college sweetheart who in time became her husband. As a result of this inalienable desire to lead and serve his community, Brother
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CELEBRATING THE MILLENNIUM
Washington would subsequently embark on a life-long career as a respected educator and nationally recognized civic leader. Washington-The Early Years After graduating from Tougaloo College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, Dr. Walter Washington moved back to his hometown area as a schoolteacher. "We lived in Hazelhurst for two years as young newlyweds and we were both employed as teachers in the local schools. Hazelhurst was a segregated mid-sized town that was known for shipping vegetables. Because there was an Illinois Central Rail Road stop in town it was not as rural as other places. The African-American community on our side of the railroad tracks was very close-knit. Everybody was on the same level of income and people didn't feel like they were poor back in the '40's and '50's," said Dr. Carolyn Washington. As a college student Brother Washington contemplated becoming a preacher like his father or becoming an educator. He chose the field of education—which traditionally offered young talented, African-American men who were dedicated to the uplift of young adults a position of high esteem in the community, very much in the same fashion as ministers in the African-American church. As a young schoolteacher Brother Washington quickly earned the respect of his peers in Hazelhurst and became the Assistant Principal of Parish High School while still serving as a classroom teacher within less than a year. Brother Washington was initiated into the Brotherhood of Alpha Phi Alpha on December 5, 1949 through Alpha Epsilon Lambda Alumni Chapter. Fraternity records show that he was a financial member in good standing since his initiation until congestive heart failure caused his death at the age of 75. He became a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha in 1967. In addition to his career in education Brother Washington was very active in numerous civic national organizations other than Alpha Phi Alpha. He was a charter member of the Beta Gamma Boule of the Sigma Pi Phi Honorary Fraternity, a member of a host