A new biography, “Lawyer Walker: A Biography of Thomas Calhoun Walker,” by Thomas T. Wiatt has been released by Limelight Publishers.

Thomas T. Wiatt

Wiatt tells the story of T.C. Walker, born a slave in 1862 in Gloucester County who grew up to graduate from Hampton Institute, become a lawyer, and develop into a significant force in his native county, especially in education. He died in 1953.

His home sits on Gloucester’s Main Street, and his life was memorialized in 2020 through a two-story mural painted on the side of a business near his home.

Wiatt, a native of Savannah, Georgia, who grew up and resides in Newport News, has deep roots in Gloucester County. Prior historical works by Wiatt are the Rev. William E. Wiatt, Captain Sally Tompkins, and “Alleged Pirate: The Legend of Captain John Sinclair of Smithfield and Gloucester, Virginia.”

The book surveys Walker’s life from boyhood into the years of civic activism and to his old age. It is liberally illustrated with p...