Mrs. Anna Walker is depicted here as the conductor of the Union Park Orchestra, ca. 1935. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
During this unprecedented time in which people across the world are rallying for racial equity, I have been thinking about the dearth of literature on Chicago’s African American history. It is wonderful that a number of important books have been published over the years and that we have resources like the DuSable Museum of African American History. Some excellent, newly produced materials are available on-line from the Newberry Library and other institutions. But, we could all benefit from a deeper understanding of Black life in Chicago. So, I’d like to share with you the inspiring story of one individual, Mrs. Anna Walker, a long-time park professional who impacted the lives of thousands of West Siders.
The Pittsburgh Daily Post ran this article about Presbyterianism and the Negro on March 1, 1909 shortly, after Rev. J.G. Walker published the pamphlet.
Born in Carthage, North Carolina, Anna Walker (1886-1970) was the daughter of Duncan and Susan McCrae. Anna’s father owned a barber shop, and two of his three sons joined him in the business. Anna studied at Shaw University in Raleigh and completed her studies at Barber-Scotia College in Concord, NC. In 1905, she married James Garfield Walker, D.D., a Presbyterian minister. The couple settled in Greensboro, N.C., where James G. Walker was pastor of the St. James Presbyterian Church. A few years later, Reverend Walker published a pamphlet entitled Presbyterianism and the Negro. In 1918, the couple moved to Chicago with their two young daughters when Dr. Walker became the pastor of Saint Paul Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of W. Washington and N. Damen Streets.
Anna Walker’s neighborhood is shown as a dark-shaded rectangle west of downtown in “Census Tracts of Chicago 1934: Percent Total Population Negro,” From The Tenements of Chicago 1908-1935 by Edith Abbott.
Anna Walker served as the choir director for her husband’s church. During the late 1920s, when her daughters were young adults, she began teaching music in the Stanton Park field house. According to The Negro in Chicago, an extensive report published in 1922 by the Chicago Commission on Race Relations a few years after the city’s horrific Race Riot, Stanton Park then had a small population of Black park patrons. At that time, Union Park, located just five blocks east of the Walkers’ home, was one of the city’s most racially balanced parks. The Negro in Chicago estimated that in the early 1920s approximately 40% of Union Park’s patrons were Afrcian American and 60% were white. (Over the next decades, as the neighborhood’s Black population continued to grow, so would the number of African Americans who frequented the park.)
Union Park Swimming Pool and Natatorium, ca. 1920. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
A park representative explained that when a new natatorium and playground opened in Union Park without adequate staffing, “considerable segregation” and “undesirable conduct” had resulted. But, the interviewee said, if a “director with the right personality” were put in charge, positive results could be expected. Indeed, he went on to report that a new Union Park playground director was able to foster a “harmonious mingling of the two races.”
The old West Park System office building was remodeled into a much-needed field house for Union Park, ca. 1935. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
In 1934, Union Park became part of the newly-formed Chicago Park District (CPD) as a result of the Parks Consolidation Act that was spurred by the need to create efficiencies and apply for federal relief funding during the Great Depression. The following year, the CPD converted the old West Park System’s administrative headquarters in Union Park into a much-needed field house. Recognizing that the African American neighborhood surrounding Union Park was growing, the park district hired other Black professionals to oversee the park. Napoleon Blueitt, a WWI veteran and former track star, was appointed as the park supervisor.
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis visited the staff of Union Park. Mrs. Anna Walker is depicted on his right side, ca. 1938. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
Mrs. Walker taught an array of music and drama classes, organized bands and choruses, and directed musicals, plays, and other special events. She created such vibrant cultural programs that the CPD began referring to Union Park as “Our Broadway.”
“On Our Broadway,” Chicago Park District Recreation News, Volume III, No. 10, October 1939.
Program for West Chicagoland Music Festival. Courtesy of the Griffin family.
Perhaps recognizing the importance of the Bud Billiken Parade to Chicago’s South Side Black community, Mrs. Walker solicited the support of members of her community to launch the West Chicagoland Music Festival in 1935. The event included a parade through the neighborhood during the day and an outdoor evening event with music and drama on Union Park’s broad lawn. Within its first several years, the festival began attracting the participation of nationally renowned African American artists, including the Keen Fleming Orchestra and Thomas A. Dorsey’s famous gospel choir. (Interestingly, Union Park has again become known as a popular site for music festivals in recent years.)
Anna Walker retired in the early 1950s. When she died in 1970, the Chicago Defender wrote that she would “long be remembered by thousands of young people she helped” during her 25 years of service to Chicago.
Theatrical production at Union Park, ca. 1950. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
When I curated a small exhibition in the Union Park Field House in the mid-1990s, I was very fortunate to meet some of the people whose lives Anna Walker had touched decades before. We held an opening event, and a number of her “protégées” attended. Among them was John Houston, who, after taking classes from Anna, decided to study drama in college. He went on to become a CPD drama teacher and was later promoted to park supervisor. Houston said Anna Walker “tried to use theater and dance to bring people together socially and culturally no matter what color they were, and it worked.” These are inspiring words for us all today.