Walter E. Fauntroy

The Hon. Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy "is a retired member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1971-1991). He began his public career in 1959 as pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, where he continues to serve. During the 1960s, he was appointed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as director of the Washington Bureau of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was District of Columbia coordinator for the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and the Selma-to-Montgomery March of 1965. Rev. Fauntroy and others launched the “Free South Africa Movement” with his own arrest at the South African Embassy in 1984. He served as co-chairman of the steering committee of the movement and coordinator of its legislative thrust.

"Rev. Fauntroy was chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Haiti, fourth ranking member of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on International Development Institutions and Finance (which oversees the Federal Reserve System). He was also a member of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus for the 97th District.

"Rev. Fauntroy now serves as President of the National Black Leadership Roundtable, affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus. He formerly served as chairman of the board of the Southern Leadership Conference, a member of the board of directors of the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change, and a trustee of Virginia Union University, of which he is a cum laude graduate. He also has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University Divinity School." 


 * Board of Counselors, Center for Economic and Social Justice