BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - In a story March 2 about the death of Walter Lee Fowlkes, The Associated Press, relying on a report from al.com that quoted family, friends and a former state lawmaker, reported erroneously that Fowlkes was the subject of a 1963 AP photo showing a civil rights marcher being attacked by a police dog. The marcher in the photo was Walter Gadsden, not Fowlkes.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Young man was little-known civil rights icon
Friends, family say Walter Lee Fowlkes was a little-known, humble civil rights icon
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Several young civil rights marchers were attacked on May 3, 1963 by police dogs in downtown Birmingham. A statue in Kelly Ingram Park is based on the dogs attacking demonstrators.
Walter Lee Fowlkes was one of the youths attacked by dogs that day, his friends and relatives said.
Civil rights attorney Demetrius Newton, who represented Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later became the first black speaker of the House in the Alabama Legislature, said Fowlkes was one of the young men attacked by dogs. City arrest records show that Fowlkes was arrested on May 3, 1963, the day of the showdown between police dogs and demonstrators.
Fowlkes, 72, known to friends and family as “Lee,” died on Feb. 13. He had suffered from dementia in recent years and was not able to do interviews. But people who knew him say he was not worried about seeking credit for his role in the civil rights movement.
“He was just very humble,” said Sharon Jordan, his cousin who was raised in the same house by Fowlkes’ mother, Mary, after her own mother died. “He didn’t elaborate on it a lot. That’s just what happened.”
Jordan recalled that Fowlkes was a student at Miles College at the time of the civil rights demonstrations led by King in Birmingham in April and May 1963.
Pastor John A. Salary of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Fairfield, across the street from Fowlkes’ home and two blocks from Miles College, invited King to speak in 1963.
“A lot of churches were afraid to have Dr. King speak because they were afraid of being bombed,” said the Rev. Michael Newton, an English teacher at Carver High School and nephew of Demetrius. Newton has been pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church since 2002, taking over after Salary had served as pastor for 56 years. “Dr. King came and spoke at our church.”
King and Salary urged Miles College students to be active in the civil rights marches. Fowlkes, a member of Mount Olive Baptist, was at those rallies and learned about the principles of non-violent resistance from Salary, Jordan said.
Jordan, now 66, said Fowlkes went to Miles for about two and half years, then worked at a dry cleaner in Birmingham and at the Pullman Standard rail car plant in Bessemer. He left Birmingham in his twenties and moved to the Los Angeles area to work for a General Motors plant. He was transferred to another plant in the St. Louis area, and bought a house in the suburb of St. Charles, where he lived for many years, Jordan said.
“As soon as he could, he moved back home,” Jordan said. “There was no family there. He never liked Missouri. He did buy a home there, but it was not home. He was a very community-oriented man. He wanted familiarity. He moved back into the very home where he was raised.”
Fowlkes retired from General Motors in 2000 and moved back to Fairfield, said his son, the Rev. Clayton Smith, pastor of Bread of Life Church in Center Point.
“Many of us in this area knew him as an unsung hero,” Michael Newton said.
Fowlkes had five children. He was one of five brothers, only one of whom is still living, in the Detroit area.
Jordan said that Fowlkes did what he thought needed to be done in 1963, taking a stand for civil rights.
“He didn’t make a fuss of it,” Jordan said. “He just went on with his life and wasn’t really looking for notoriety. At the time, he was motivated, committed, doing what he had to do. He was known and admired in Fairfield. He was definitely revered in the community. They knew he was a brave guy.”
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