CHAPTER VII.INFLUENCE IN GEORGIA.
In spite of his arduous labors and duties at Augusta, Dr. Walker yet found time to be interested in all matters which concerned the welfare of all the people throughout the State of Georgia, and was an active participant in many State gatherings of various kinds, aside from the large number of evangelistic meetings he found time to conduct in many Georgia cities. For several years he was Moderator of the Western Union Baptist Association; for four or five years he was Chairman of the Executive Board of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia; for two years he was Vice President, and for eight years Secretary of the same body; he was Treasurer for several years of the Sunday School Workers’ Convention of Georgia; he was at one time Vice President of the Georgia Interdenominational Sunday School Convention; he was for a number of years a member of the Republican State Executive Committee; he has been, from the beginning, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Baptist Institute, and was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Baptist College. The filling of these various offices of trust and responsibility indicate in a small way the immense activity which he has displayed in the general welfare of the State, and particularly the welfare of the Baptist denomination.
In addition to these things, there has not been a convention of any kind called by the colored citizens of Georgia, as has frequently been the case during the past twenty years, which he has not attended, anxious always to do something to advance the Negro in the scale of civilization. He has many times visited the annual meetings of the State Teachers’ Association of Georgia and, by invitation, has addressed them, trying to show what part the teachers ought to take in solving the so-called “Race Problem.” He has been a favorite commencement orator at many of Georgia’s schools and colleges, and has never been able in any one year to accept all the numerous invitations which have come to him to deliver baccalaureate sermons. On the first day of January each year, it is customary for the colored people throughout the South to hold public meetings, where addresses are delivered by distinguished men, in commemoration of the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, Jan. 1st, 1863. Dr. Walker’s addresses, delivered at different places in the State on Emancipation Day, would alone make a very large and interesting volume. Nor has he felt that his duties as a preacher have of necessity absolved him from active participation in public affairs, or what is more generally called politics. He was for years a member of the Richmond County Executive Committee of the Republican Party, and also a member of the Republican State Committee. He has believed and has taught that it is the duty of every citizen to be interested in the political welfare of his city, State and country, and, in his judgment, no man is entitled to be called a good citizen who allows the vicious and corrupt to do all the voting and all the dictating, and then sits down and sighs for what is called “the better and purer days of the Republic.” Of his work as an evangelist, mention will be made in a later chapter. But let it be said now that no one man in Georgia has held a larger number of special meetings throughout the State, nor has had a larger number of conversions to be attributed to his preaching, than has Dr. Walker. It is not exaggeration to say that he is the best known Negro minister of the State of Georgia, and that more people will go to hear him preach than will go to hear any other colored man. Not the celebrated, plain-spoken, claw and hammer preaching of Sam Jones, nor the Holy Ghost preaching of the pious Dwight L. Moody, of sainted memory, drew larger crowds to the auditorium at Exposition Park, Atlanta, Ga., than did the thunderous proclamation of the gospel by Charles T. Walker.
Perhaps in no way has his influence been felt in Georgia more than in the selection of competent men for Baptist pastorates and in the appointment of competent men and women as teachers at many places in the State. Dr. Walker’s reputation as a safe leader and wise counsellor, his extensive travels and consequent wide acquaintance with men and women throughout the State and nation have proved to be very helpful to all concerned in the recommendations he has been asked to make. No one in Georgia who knows of these things can recall a single instance in which the recommendation of Dr. Walker, in the case of a church or school, has been turned down. So interested has Dr. Walker been in the welfare of others, and so eager has he been to see competent leaders set over the people, that he has been known time and again to go 500, 600, and sometimes 1,000 miles at his own expense to assist those who needed and asked his opinion and advice, or to help some person to secure a position. Not all of those whom he has helped have been grateful; not all of them will admit their obligation; only a few of them remember the bridge that carried them over. When told of the ungratefulness of different ones, Dr. Walker only laughs and says: “I do not help anybody with the expectation of being thanked. It is my duty to do my duty toward my fellow men, whether they thank me or not.” Thus he dismisses the subject, and goes to talking about something else. Several times larger churches in Georgia, that could pay him more money than Tabernacle Baptist Church, extended calls to him to occupy their pulpits, but he always replied that Tabernacle Church was good enough for him, and then would assist the churches in securing good men. Such unselfishness is rare, and has helped very much to perpetuate the hold which Dr. Walker has had on the people of Georgia for so many years.