Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

Walden, Austin Thomas (A. T.) (1885–1965)

Walden was a prominent black lawyer in Georgia during the civil rights era. He received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1911, and began practicing law in Macon, Georgia, in 1912. He worked for the Atlanta Urban League and was president of the NAACP Atlanta branch. He worked to equalize pay for black teachers and won a lawsuit that ultimately called for the desegregation of Georgia schools, including the University of Georgia. In 1964, he was appointed judge of the Atlanta Municipal court, the first black judge in Georgia since Reconstruction.