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Hello, my name is Professor Dore L Walker Jr. and good afternoon. Hello, my name is Doctor Betty Davis Walker, and I'm interviewing on Tuesday, June 25th, 2024 for Pepperdine University Libraries South Los Angeles Oral History Project. Perfect. OK. Of course, I'd have to start uh with

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the fact that, uh, I came to Los Angeles in 1945. I was born in Northern Louisa, that is, and I moved, my family moved from uh Louisiana to uh LA in 1945, where I began my studies at the Lafayette Junior High School. What brought us to

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Los our family to Los Angeles was in World War II. But the neighborhood was made up primarily uh. In those days of uh African-Americans and a few Latino uh uh sectors. The Japanese, as we know, were taken away to the concentration camps during the war. So

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those properties, when they opened up after the war was over, with the first opportunity we had had to own property. Our families had their own property in the in the east, what's called the east side of Los Angeles. But my primary focus was being involved with

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technology and things like that in those days. As an example of that, myself and some of my friends started probably the first cellphones. We got crystal oscillator radio, we built from kits, and we would talk to each other in our home. I wasn't we get other

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cell phone. The Korean War started in 1950, and I graduated from Jefferson in 1951. And of course, my choices when I had to go in the army, now I've been, uh, we had the draft in those days. So I chose to go into the navy so

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I could continue to study electrical engineering. So that's one of the things that I did. In 1964, I joined uh, a company headed by the inventor of a laser, a gentleman by the name of Ted Bayman. And of course, my job there, I was working in

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manufacturing and production work and with the with the with the Core laser system located in Santa Monica, California. There I usually as a little bit of a joke and introduce it, but I went from the navy to the moon. As part of my work, I got

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involved with development projects and again became the, the customer service manager for Corri lasers. Which took me around the country and around the world involved with installing lasers at science laboratories, manufacturing output, uh, businesses, and so forth. But anyway, here comes 1969, and we're gonna go

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to the moon. Well, some folks decided would it be a great idea to, uh, you could land on the moon and they would conduct an experiment or give us some information that could be quite useful. And I then got the job handed to me to go

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to Lick Observatory just outside of, of uh San Francisco there in the mountains at the observatory there, run by the University of California and Florido, at that time was the most powerful laser in the world, all the way to the moon and the balances laser bed.

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But we did that, and of course, completed the first interplanetary experiment in history. So that was a lot of fun doing that. And of course, you can read about that. I uh grew up in Washington DC and my father was in charge of the ordinance department

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at the Pentagon, and my mother was an office manager at the Marine Corps right up the hill. In those days, Washington DC was 99.5% African American. So you had Doctor Charles Drew that you've heard of, who was our neighbor and his kids and I, we all

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grew up and played together and And uh the tors, the judges, all of them are right there and so we were so close knit as a city, not just a community, a city that everyone knew that you were going to be leaders no matter what. You

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had to succeed no matter what. I traveled alone to Europe but with an American Express uh group and uh later met um. Carl Orf Institute and started studying there the Orf Schulberg uh method and became the first English speaking person to attend the um German Speaking

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institute, but I came to Los Angeles because my neighbor went to UCLA and she would bring blue and yellow UCLA flags home every Christmas and every summer so my. The room was blue and yellow. I had gotten my master's after going to UCLA and Chapman, and

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so I taught at Howard University, which I graduated from Howard, so it was wonderful to get the opportunity to teach there when my mother was ill. So I stayed there when she passed, then I said I gotta go back to LA for the beautiful weather. Well,

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when I was going to UCLA I was living right there off of Arlington, near uh Adams. As a matter of fact, um, West twenty-seventh Street, which is right like right behind where Home and Church is, and Lou Rawls, uh, also lived in that apartment complex, and

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Ray Charles and all of them used to come and have jam sessions and all. So, so I love being at home I'd love to get through with my studies so I can get home and listen to all the good music. Our unit was there on the

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on the front and so they'd have to pass by us and we'd always have the door open, you know, and they'd come in and and uh you know, just stops at the steps and and talk and wave and all and so it when my being a

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um um. Music major as well as, as education. I was like, yes, I, I was right there to listen to them and sometimes they say, come on down. Uh, the neighborhood where Pepperdine existed was in those, in those days called South Central was to watch riots

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happen. And of course, you could imagine myself as a young man, uh, watching that event and was in 19, uh, 15064, the Watts riots, they were 1964. I lived at the corner of 48th and and Asa as a young boy, and while I was watching television

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and saw the burning and buildings being destroyed there on Central Avenue, I decided I better go take a look. This is my own neighborhood. So, of course, I did, and of course, it was, had a couple of close calls uh involving the police, but uh I

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was happy to see that once that was over, we can start trying to rebuild South Central Los Angeles. I think the important thing is that, what do we see it now? And my family, of course, there was, it was 5 of us, uh, 3 brothers and

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2 sisters, and my mom and dad made up our family. And of course, my dad, uh, he did work in a, in a carpentry business. My mother was a teacher, uh, of course, this is interesting story. She, uh, came after graduating from Gramblin College in, uh,

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Louisiana. She came to LA to go to become a teacher, and of course, her degree from Gramblin wasn't uh recognized. So, of course, he had to go back to school at, uh, Southwest or something like that, but Cal State LA Cal State LA to get recertified

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as a teacher. We found, I found that. Technology really was lacking participation of African Americans in those early days. So that's one of the reasons Betty and I decided we would try to influence future generations get involved in science and technology, and she can talk a

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little bit more about that. Yes, I think, um, what really connected us in meeting is the fact that I ran the halls of the Pentagon all through elementary and high school, every day after school and kind of thought I was, I was, I was at my

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second home and So I think when um I was principal and because I was at Ralph Bunn Elementary school and he was so important. To African American history, the first thing I did was raise funds and take the students. I took 15 students on a trip

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to New York and we got a chance to meet Ralph Bun's original assistant and tour the United Nations because of that kind of support that we had throughout that city of of African Americans at 17, I wanted to major in. Education And do a little psychology.

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And my music teacher said, but she said, but how dare you think you can just um leave your music? And I said, well, I can, I can teach music and I can do other things in the evening. She said, no, no, you gotta, you gotta keep

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that going. So I thought, yeah, I don't want to leave music. At that time, Howard University did not have a school of education. And the University of District of Columbia, which is UDC now, uh, did not have a school of music. So I wrote a letter.

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To the president of Howard and to the president of UDC and told them that I wish to major in music, but you don't have a a music school. I wish to major in education. You don't have an education school, so I would like to attend both

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of your universities, some. Simultaneously so that I can graduate with my class because I had skipped the 5th grade, so I didn't want to go backwards by adding a year on to have the double major and uh they wrote me back and that's what I did.

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I was recruited to go to Montana. I was the first African American. They were looking at me in the street. The Indians, everybody was looking at me, you know, and I, I was like, what is wrong with these people? The but they had, I've never even

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been into town, Dillon College, you know, a small town in Montana, but anyhow, um, by the time I got the Pepperdine, I don't think I had, I didn't have anyone who was saying how did, how did this African American get here. But the class that I

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did uh teach there, I found the syllabus the other day, I don't know where it is now, but I taught uh African-American history, and I guess it's because I grew up with all those folks up there and, um, Colin Powell, we go up to New York

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to events and all, so, uh, that, that seemed to be the, the thing I thought was needed. You may remember the shuttle Endeavor came through Inglewood on his way to the, to the, uh, Southern California, California. They came to Inglewood and uh we were there. I

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was, I was part of the, the uh they asked Magic Johnson if he would be the um the MC for the event and one of our um council people who was on our advisory committee went to the mayor and said, Well, why are you asking Magic

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Johnson to be the MC when you got somebody right here. Uh, down the street who actually was in the space business. And so then Hal got got picked to be the MC for the program. So we had our kids there, up there on the stage, they

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had on their space outfits and saluting and all. Well, I'd like to talk a little bit about our church affiliations. Well, Betty and I were involved in the first, uh, Uh, May movement in Los Angeles, and I later became the director of that uh Walter May

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community in Los Angeles, and of course me a lot of books and you are the music director for the, for the music and it's right there on Vernon and Yeah near Vermont. Yeah, right near Vermont. That's where this big huge church. Well, I just was excited

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to be a member of Holeman when I realized that um this was the George um Pepperdine mansion and and area and all. And having Jim Lawson Share So much about the original. Movement, you know, down in the South and being a part of that, and I

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didn't realize at that time that that King had had really appointed him to, to be the leader and, and make things happen. We had all kinds of activities that were so inclusive and that is what I loved the most. It was, it was never just this

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group or just us or, you know, we always had A rainbow, I'll call it from being in South Africa. We always had a, a rainbow um community at home and church and Jim even had um Martin Luther King come and be a preacher one Sunday, and

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that was really something I'll never, never, never forget. It was standing room only and, and Even though it was standing room only inside, the people stood outside, all on the parking lot, all on the on the sidewalks, all up and down. We have a a three-level

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parking lot. They were all standing on the backside just just to be there and the microphones were, you know, they had speakers out and so people were at the lower level. of the parking, middle level and the top level, all filled, but in their cars, listening

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with the windows down, listening just to say that they were there, even though they couldn't get into the building and couldn't get any closer on the grounds. It was, it was um, I'll never forget that. That was so amazing. As a matter of fact, I marched

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on Washington. So I had, I had two, really incredible experiences with, with being with Martin Luther King, one with millions and one with just, you know, hundreds together. So, um, that definitely will always be special. We had the opportunity, of course, to, to meet President Mandela

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here with our kids. Stephen was one of the kids with us for that, and he He asked us to come back and make kids like that in in South Africa that we made in America. And so, uh, Steven was just a part of everything of being

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that being impressive, but uh the same thing for President Mandela, just an unassuming giant, just amazing to sit and spend two hours with him and, and just like you just like we're talking, movie stars. You know, I want to make you know who they are, but

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these two guys, those two guys, I'll, I'll never uh forget for just being. Who they are with all they had going and all they've done for the world, both of them that we had the opportunity to uh spend time alone with both of them, you know,

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and they told us about a farm school that was near them that had nothing the kids just there they don't get to go to school and if you would put a. A um computer lab on that farm school that would make history and it certainly did

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we did it they didn't have electricity we thought we were gonna have to have help figure out how we could electrify it, but they took it to the legislature, the plan, and they will say if these people are gonna come and put a school here on

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the on on this farm and these kids can go to school for the first time, we will electrify it. They got the electrification done and we had a parade from everybody in the whole Pretoria area, the kids and the band and the parents, and, um, and

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listen to this, because of that project, they electrified all the farm schools in South Africa. And that's when we knew we have to come back again because it takes so much red tape for us to get anything done, you know, and for them to do that

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just like that the legisl, no, we're doing that. Oh, we said, oh yeah, we gotta come. And the parents came in, couldn't even speak English, but they got so excited, listened to the kids come home. And show the little things they had made, you know, because

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everything hands on, put your mind to work and the parents would come in there and try and learn and oh it was just amazing. So we, we put in I guess about what, about 10 computer labs in the Pretoria Johannesburg area and then we were staying

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with. The US ambassador's assistant and the import director for the US embassy. But I think too for us that grew up in the community, especially along Vermont Avenue back in those days, that Certainly Papi I was such a, a very important location. Uh, and of course,

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the white community, as we would call it existed around it, around it as a neighborhoods. We were integrating those areas in those years, but uh we did findpe down an open environment for us to have um the access to this campus and, and the things on

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the campus. When I was um Leave class uh at UCLA and come by the church. I was, I guess they needed some young people, so they put me on the United Methodist Women's Council, so I was the vice president and, and the youngest one they'd ever

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had. So we would have our meetings right on the porch of George Pepperdine's home. By that time, they had the, the big huge building was gone. But the, but the home was still there, and so we would meet there on the porch and have um. Our

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receptions, and then we'd go into the living room, into the house, and uh have our meetings. And so right now today. After the church took over that that part, that property section of the property, they built White Hall and that's where we had our event just

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in September where we had our students have their uh STEM reunion right in Whitehall, which was the home of George Pepperdine and I was telling them about that too, because then when they came back, I said now all these years you need to know some history

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about where we are. Pepperdine, I don't know, maybe it's because of where it was uh located and as Hal was saying when, when he went there, that was the little area where most of the African Americans were associating, but I was, I, I felt in comparison

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to um UCLA that uh Pepperdine. was open And maybe they were open because of their location. So for for Pepperdine, I didn't, that was a totally different for me to be able to uh communicate and come there and um. Actually share. A black history course. On

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that campus. Now later, of course, um, you know, UCLA has has come a long way, but back in those days, no. Over the years, Uh, many of my personal friends, I will see you, they were my age who had some affiliation with Peppad in many different

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ways to outreach programs, to discuss sports activities. So it with the name was quite popular in the 50s and 60s around Los Angeles in our African-American uh culture environment. I just think we got to continue to build neighborhoods of peace, relationships. But certainly the clergy and

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the Pepperdines, the other, uh, uh, religious institutions have a job to do to promote that. Abe, of course, is a peace coordinator for the International Rotary Organization, and we just want to just say, let's make peace a, a, a purposeful, purposeful place for us, and we

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can use more, use the resources of the community to make that happen.