Wichita city council members have voted to name a new branch library after a well-known local civil rights leader, Dr. Ronald W. Walters.
Dr. Walters was born in Wichita and organized the 1958 sit-in at the Dockum Drug Store, one of the first lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights movement. He later provided input to Congress and several Presidents. He was the director of the African American Leadership Institute and Scholar Practitioner Program, Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, and he was also a professor in government and politics at the University of Maryland. Dr. Walters died in 2010.
Dr. Walter’s wife, Patricia Walters, talked to the city council through an Internet connection and said her husband was an intellectual, an activist, and Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama looked to him for advice and input.
The name will be given to the new branch library at 4195 East Harry, in Council District 3, and it will be opening early this year. It is the former Linwood Park Branch Library that will be moving to the location on Harry.
The council vote was 5-1 in favor of the new name. Council member Jeff Blubaugh voted against the naming, and he said a survey favored naming the library after the late Mayor Carl Brewer, who advocated for a strong library system. Mayor Brandon Whipple said the survey was intended to get input and not provide a final choice for the naming. The Library Board of Directors served as the Naming Advisory Committee.
