David Walker

David Walker, a free (with a small f) black man, was one of the most significant African-American abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Born in a slave society before moving to Boston where, after the American Revolutionary War, slavery was abolished, Walker devoted his life to fighting slavery and antiblack racism.

In this book, Sherrow O. Pinder brings to light Walker’s lived experience, activism, and the synchronizing of his Christian principles and reformist radicalism to demonstrate why and how slavery must be eliminated. Walker’s call for blacks to regain their natural rights culminated in his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, an enormously influential work that is now considered a founding text of black studies.

Today, given the escalation of antiblack racism manifested in the upholding of institutionalized violence by the state and the continued marginality of African-Americans, we cannot afford to forget Walker’s push for racial egalitarianism: it is more urgent than ever.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Envisioning David Walker’s Life in the South
Chapter 2: David Walker Moves from the South to the North
Chapter 3: David Walker’s Reproof of Blacks’ Unequal Treatment and How to Promote Racial Equality
Chapter 4: David Walker’s Fearless Speech in the Appeal and Its Aftermath

Conclusion: The Usefulness of David Walker’s Thought for an Analysis of Antiblack Racism Today

“An indispensable book about an indispensable figure in black history. So much of Walker's thinking rings true still, and Pinder exquisitely articulates its importance. A must-read, feel, and experience.”
Marquis Bey, author of Black Trans Feminism

“Why does David Walker matter today? Sherrow O. Pinder has done us a great service, as she invites us to let Walker be our avatar should a vibrant Black politics and equality for all be our goal.”
Neil Roberts, author of A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass

Sherrow O. Pinder is Professor of Political Science at California State University, Chico.