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Lester Walton

Lester Walton
BornApril 20, 1882
St. Louis, Missouri
DiedOctober 16, 1965 (aged 83)
New York, New York
NationalityAmerican
EducationWalton received multiple honorary degrees, including an M.A. and two LL.Ds
Occupation(s)Multi-faceted career that included foundational work in film criticism and sportswriting, Broadway songwriting, politics, civil rights, international diplomacy
Known forGroundbreaking number of firsts, while making a significant contribution to multiple fields:
  • First full-time Black journalist
  • First full-time Black arts critic
  • First full-time Black sportswriter
  • Successful advocate for capitalizing the word 'Negro'

Lester Aglar Walton (April 20, 1882 – October 16, 1965)[1][2] was a St. Louis-born Harlem Renaissance polymath and intellectual, a well-known figure in his day, who advanced civil rights in significant and prescient ways in journalism, entertainment, politics, diplomacy and elsewhere.[3] The New York Times called him an "authority on Negro affairs."[4] Historian Susan Curtis describes him as a man who "advised U.S. presidents and industrialists ... [and] was instrumental in desegregating housing" in New York City.[3] As "America's first black reporter for a local daily," Walton also became the first full-time Black sportswriter and the first Black journalist to cover golf and the nascent sport of pre-1910 basketball.[5][6]

Two of Walton's Workplaces
Lafayette Theatre (Harlem) where Walton served as producer, manager and songwriter.
The New York Age where Walton served as both writer and editor. An article he wrote on "Negro" soldiers is on the upper left, date illegible.

A Broadway songwriter who wrote lyrics for Bert Williams and George Walker, Walton also produced his own theater productions, managed Harlem's Lafayette Theatre and frequently collaborated on lyrics with the "legendary Ernest Hogan, a.k.a. the Unbleached American, an early black minstrel and vaudeville comedian who (by some historians’ reckoning) was the first African-American performer to play before a white audience on Broadway."[7][8][9][10] “Black Bohemia” with Will Marion Cook and the protest song "Jim Crow Has Got to Go," popular during the early days of civil rights marches, are among Walton's better known compositions.[11][12][13]

A seminal figure in early film criticism, Walton is considered to be among the earliest to understand the direct and indirect educational power of onscreen imagery.[14][15] In his extensive writing on the medium, he produced numerous persuasive, wide-ranging and foundational arguments for condemning the objectification of Black Americans, and for understanding the resonance of the medium.[15]

In an ultimately successful, and seemingly modern campaign, Walton, with help from the Associated Press, advocated for the media to capitalize the "N" in "Negro," and eliminate the use of the word "Negress" altogether.[16] He went on to become an advocate of another kind when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Liberia in 1935.[17] During his decade-plus tenure there, he successfully concluded several important treaties, while also negotiating the terms of an American air base, and helping Liberia build a market for rubber exports.[3]

Walton's contributions to the culture, discourse, and advancement of civil rights were recognized in his time with three honorary degrees: in 1927, he received a Master of Arts from Lincoln University in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1945 and in 1958, he received an LL.D. from Wilberforce University in Ohio and the University of Liberia, respectively.[16]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wintz-Finkelman Ency Harlem Renn 2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYPols was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c "Historian applauds black journalist, diplomat who history forgot". www.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  4. ^ "ENVOY TO LIBERIA IS SWORN IN HERE; Oath Given to L.A. Walton by Justice Watson in Municipal Court Before Friends". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  5. ^ "Lester Aglar Walton – The Black Fives Foundation". www.blackfives.org. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  6. ^ Sullivan, John Jeremiah (2016-03-24). "'Shuffle Along' and the Lost History of Black Performance in America". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  7. ^ Morris, Michael G. (2018-02-22). "I Can't Keep My Eyes Off Of You". Gershwin 100. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  8. ^ walton, lester a. "Search results from Available Online, Walton, Lester A." Library of Congress. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  9. ^ "'Shuffle Along' and the Lost History of Black Performance in America". 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  10. ^ "Podcast Ep.5 — CLASSIX". Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  11. ^ "Lester Walton photograph collection". researchworks.oclc.org. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  12. ^ "Lester Walton, Composer, and Journalist born". African American Registry. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  13. ^ "Lester A. Walton, journalist, diplomat and songwriter". amsterdamnews.com. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  14. ^ "9 Black Filmmaking Pioneers from the Earliest Days of Cinema". Retrieved 2021-09-22.
  15. ^ a b Everett, Anna (2000). "Lester Walton's "Écriture Noir": Black Spectatorial Transcodings of "Cinematic Excess"". Cinema Journal. 39 (3): 30–50. doi:10.1353/cj.2000.0008. ISSN 0009-7101. JSTOR 1225532. S2CID 194100364.
  16. ^ a b "Lester Walton Papers". NYPL Archives. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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