36 Facts About Edwin Walker

Edwin Anderson Walker was a United States Army major general who served in World War II and the Korean War.

In early 1962, Edwin Walker campaigned to become governor of Texas and lost the Democratic primary election to the eventual winner, John Connally.

In October 1962, Edwin Walker was arrested for promoting riots at the University of Mississippi in protest against the admission of black student James Meredith into the all-white university.

Attorney General Robert F Kennedy ordered Walker committed to a mental asylum for a 90-day evaluation, but the ACLU and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz protested along with rightist groups, and Walker was released in five days.

Edwin Walker reported that he was the target of an assassination attempt at his home on April 10,1963, but escaped serious injury when a bullet fired from outside hit a window frame and fragmented.

Edwin Walker was born in 1909 in the town of Center Point in Kerr County, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country.

Edwin Walker graduated in 1927 from the New Mexico Military Institute.

Edwin Walker attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1931.

Edwin Walker's training was in artillery, but in World War II he commanded a sub-unit of the Canadian-American First Special Service Force.

Edwin Walker took command of the force's 3rd Regiment while still in the United States, and commanded the regiment throughout its time in Italy.

Edwin Walker commanded the FSSF when it was disbanded in early 1945.

Edwin Walker experienced combat during the Korean War, commanding the Third Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment and serving as a senior advisor to the army of the Republic of Korea.

Edwin Walker was then assigned as commander of the Arkansas Military District in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Edwin Walker repeatedly protested to Eisenhower that using federal troops to enforce racial integration was against his conscience.

In 1959, Edwin Walker met publisher Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society who taught his followers that Eisenhower was a communist and that the civil rights movement was a communist plot.

Edwin Walker began promoting his "Pro-Blue" indoctrination program for troops, which included a reading list of materials by Hargis and the John Birch Society.

Edwin Walker denied the allegation that he provided voting instructions to soldiers and that the allegation was based on an article in the division newspaper that provided instructions for filling out absentee ballots.

Edwin Walker was relieved of his command by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, while an inquiry was conducted.

Edwin Walker decided for the second time to resign from the US Army.

Edwin Walker was entitled to retire, but he chose instead to make a political statement.

Edwin Walker chose political activism to his 30-year military career, so on November 2,1961, Edwin Walker publicly resigned.

Edwin Walker enjoyed enthusiastic crowds all over the United States and his anti-communist message was popular.

Edwin Walker promoted the McCarthyist belief that communists were inside the United States government.

In February 1962, Edwin Walker began his campaign for governor, but finished last among six candidates in a Democratic primary election.

Edwin Walker was arrested on four federal charges, including sedition and insurrection against the United States.

Edwin Walker was temporarily detained in a mental institution on orders from Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, who demanded that Walker receive a 90-day psychiatric examination.

The attorney general had to relent, and Edwin Walker spent only five days in the asylum.

Edwin Walker posted bond and returned home to Dallas, where he was greeted by a crowd of some 200 devotees.

Edwin Walker organized an October 24,1963, UN Day attack on Adlai Stevenson, American ambassador to the United Nations, in Dallas.

In mid-October 1963, Edwin Walker rented the same Dallas Memorial Auditorium in which Stevenson would later speak.

Edwin Walker promoted his opposition event as "US Day" and he invited members of the John Birch Society, the National Indignation Convention, the Minutemen and other organizations opposed to communism and the United Nations.

In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled against Edwin Walker and found that although the statements might have been false, the Associated Press was not guilty of reckless disregard in its reporting about Edwin Walker.

Edwin Walker made statements at the time to the Dallas Morning News that he had "refused" his pension.

Edwin Walker was arrested again in Dallas for public lewdness on March 16,1977.

Edwin Walker pleaded no contest to one of the two misdemeanor charges, and was convicted and sentenced to jail time, which the judge suspended.

Edwin Walker was never married and did not have any children.