Distinguished African American Political and Governmental Leaders

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Copyright Washington Post, reprinted by permission of D.C. Public Library

Born: February 6, 1933, in Washington, D.C.

Status: Pastor, New Bethel Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.; president, Walter E. Fauntroy and Associates, Washington, D.C.

Education: B.A. cum laude, 1955, Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia; B.D., 1958, Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut

Position: Pastor, New Bethel Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., 1959--; vice chairperson, city council of Washington, D.C., 1967-1969; delegate from the District of Columbia to Congress, 1971-1990; president, Walter E. Fauntroy and Associates, Washington, D.C., 1990--

Walter Edward Fauntroy was born the fourth of seven children on February 6, 1933, in Washington, D.C. His father worked as a clerk in the United States Patent Office, and between the Depression and the number of children in the family, money was tight. Fauntroy grew up in the Shaw community in Washington, D.C., an area plagued then as now with poverty and drugs. As Fauntroy himself said, although he didn't realize it as a child, the ghetto was like a plantation, with "the dope, the bootleg liquor, the payoffs to the cops, the general fear of the white man" ( Mabunda and Phelps78).

Fauntroy attended Washington's segregated schools and grew up in a neighborhood rife with crime, but he found a quiet place to play on the grounds of the New Bethel Baptist Church near his home. It wasn't until he was in high school, however, that he felt called to become

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