Dr. Deborah J. Walker & the Alabama Civil Rights Movement

Note: This episode was recorded before the events of October 2023.

In this episode I speak to longtime VISIONS consultant Dr. Deborah J. Walker, who has spent her life doing anti-oppression work-- a commitment rooted in her experiences growing up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960s. When she was 12, Dr. Walker was a block away from the 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, when it was bombed-- an inflection moment in the history of civil rights in the US.

Dr. Walker takes us back to her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, painting a vivid picture of the Civil Rights movement and the striking events that occurred in 1960s, from the Children's March, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the 1963 March on Washington to the assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These experiences not only impacted her life, but also set her on the path towards working for social justice, change, and equity.

Dr. Walker recounts her professional journey, where she learned to channel her clinical skills to support historically excluded communities — work that eventually led her to VISIONS. From understanding the importance of self-care to building alliances, Dr. Walker takes us through the learnings that not only helped her grow, but also nurtured her resolve to continue speaking truth to power.

In the final part of our journey, we talk about the tour that Dr. Walker is leading along the Alabama Civil Rights Trail in May 2024. The trip includes visits to sites like the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, and the 16th Street Baptist Church. We discuss the  Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and its striking exhibits on the histories and legacies of enslavement, incarceration, and lynching in United States. Dr. Walker emphasizes how vital it is to understand history as we learn to work together for a more just and equitable future.

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About us
Into Liberation: A podcast about transformative change, equity, and liberation is a production of VISIONS, Inc, a non-profit that offers effective tools that help individuals and organizations communicate and forge connections across differences that drive collective success.

Since 1984, we’ve offered research-based, time-tested approaches to cross-cultural learning that invite participants to engage in equity and inclusion work, starting at the personal and interpersonal levels and expanding to include changes toward institutional and cultural levels.

VISIONS offers actionable approaches that empower people to identify actions, explore their motivations, and effectively move through complex situations with respect and humanity for others and their differences.

Any opinions and views expressed by the speakers are their own and do not reflect the positions of VISIONS, Inc.

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Music credit: Tim Hall @tv_hall

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