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Editorial: What would T.C. Walker say?

Thomas Calhoun Walker never faced the kind of situation that has led to the proposal now before county residents—the closure of the elementary school that bears his name.

Throughout his life, as reflected in his autobiography "The Honey-Pod Tree," Walker worked tirelessly to expand the county’s school facilities, especially for Gloucester’s black population. He probably couldn’t foresee the day when Gloucester had more classroom space than it needed.

"I had not been teaching at Old Poplars very many weeks before the enrollment had grown to over eighty and the little old schoolhouse simply could not accommodate us any longer," he wrote, speaking of his first teaching assignment after graduating from Hampton Institute. Later in his life, as a successful lawyer, Walker fought for (and partially paid for out of his own pocket) the Gloucester Training School. That school, the first free public secondary school for black students in Glouceste...

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