WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A memorial service is planned for later this month for Ronald W. Walters, a Wichita civil rights pioneer and professor at Howard University and the University of Maryland.
University of Maryland spokesman Lee Tune said Walters died Friday at the age of 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Wichita NAACP and the Kansas African American Museum will host a memorial service to honor Walters on Sept. 26 at the museum.
In 1958, Walters led the local NAACP youth chapter in a sit-in at a Wichita Dockum Drug Store. Like many Kansas stores at that time, Dockum's had an unwritten policy not to serve blacks seated at the lunch counter.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
University of Maryland spokesman Lee Tune said Walters died Friday at the age of 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Wichita NAACP and the Kansas African American Museum will host a memorial service to honor Walters on Sept. 26 at the museum.
In 1958, Walters led the local NAACP youth chapter in a sit-in at a Wichita Dockum Drug Store. Like many Kansas stores at that time, Dockum's had an unwritten policy not to serve blacks seated at the lunch counter.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
