Walter T. Lunsford, Sr

Born: March 16, 1916

Died: December 28, 2006

Based on a presentation given to the Shaw High School Young Historian’s Club by Lula Lunsford Huff, his daughter, on April 11, 2007.

Walter Lunsford’s parents, Watson T. Lunsford and Elizabeth M. Lunsford, originally lived on what is now Fort Benning, on Five Miles Road—which, according to them, was five miles from downtown Columbus. Forced to move when the Army acquired their land, the Lunsfords moved to the “Bottoms”—the area at the foot of Wynn’s Hill, where many blacks in segregated Columbus lived—and opened grocery stores there. Walter was born in 1916, and graduated at the age of 16 from Spencer High School in 1933. All high schools in Columbus at that time ended with the 11 th grade. He graduated with honors, having served as class treasurer and delivered the Ivey Oration at the graduation ceremony.

He went on to attend Fisk University in Evanston, Illinois, then the University of Chicago, majoring in physics. Ms. Huff recalled that he always had a “mechanical kind of mind”, and loved to take things apart to see how they worked. When he returned to Columbus, he became the town’s first black pilot, taking lessons in Wisconsin when he was unable get lessons at home. In July 1939, he married Sally M. Lunsford, a recent graduate of Spencer who had received a scholarship to attend Fort Valley State College. The two formed a partnership that produced 10 children and numerous successful businesses, for Walter and Sally both had inherited their parents’ entrepreneurial talents.

With World War II looming on the horizon, the United States instituted the nation’s first peacetime draft. The local draft board selected Walter, a move that the family felt was in retaliation for Walter’s mother’s (Elizabeth Lunsford—“Lizzie Mae”) deep political involvement within the black community. Walter made it as far as the Army physical, where it was discovered that he had flat feet, and thus was physically unqualified to serve. What was a loss for the army turned out to be a substantial gain for Columbus and the black community, for the Lunsford family would form a bond with the black soldiers who trained at Fort Benning that would last far beyond the war years.

Soon after Walter and Sally’s marriage, Sally opened a restaurant on 9 th Street called the Annex. Ms. Huff smiled at the irony of this, because in the early days of their marriage, her mother was not a particularly good cook. Her grandmother once asked Walter how things were going in their new life together, and Walter had responded that things were okay, except that Sally couldn’t cook. Her grandmother admonished him, “If you had wanted a cook, you should have married a cook”.

Ms. Huff drew a map of the area in the “Bottoms” bordered by 8 th and 9 th Streets and 5 th and 6 th Avenues. This block was the commercial hub of the black community of Columbus at that time. A mix of 2-3 story row houses, small businesses, bars, restaurants, funeral homes, professional offices and churches, it was also the location (at “Magic Corner”) where soldiers from Fort Benning were deposited on the bus route from post. Fort Benning had always had a contingent of black soldiers—starting with the 24 th Infantry Regiment that had arrived in 1922 to provide the labor that built many of the early post facilities, including Doughboy Stadium. Getting back to post posed a major problem after the buses ended their runs, especially for black soldiers—there was no taxi service in Columbus that served blacks. Thus was born one of the many entrepreneurial ventures begun by Walter Lunsford—the Red Bird Taxi Company, located at the corner of 5 th Avenue and 9 th Street. Lunsford would add two other taxi companies over the following years, the Checker Cab Company and the Blue Bird Cab Company. When asked why he incorporated three cab companies instead of just expanding the one, Ms. Huff explained that it all involved liability. By splitting assets into different corporations, a liability suit brought against one in case of an accident would not affect the other two. At one point, the three businesses combined employed 100 drivers, and was the largest black employer in Columbus.

By 1941, it was recognized within the black community that a recreational facility for black soldiers was badly needed, especially as the number of black soldiers being trained at Fort Benning was increasing significantly. White soldiers already had a USO facility in the downtown area. With the encouragement of black community leaders like E.E. Farley (a local realtor who later developed Carver Heights) and Dr. Thomas Brewer, a prominent physician, Walter’s mother, Lizzie Mae, provided $15,000 to build a USO/YMCA Club for black soldiers. It opened with much fanfare on July 27, 1941, at the corner of 9 th Street and Fifth Avenue, being advertised as the first of its kind in the nation, if not the entire world.

During the war years, Walter Lunsford expanded his businesses. He established an amusement company in the building across from the taxi business—providing local businesses with pin ball machines and juke boxes. Wishing to sell beer in his wife’s restaurant, the Annex, he examined how to go about getting a local distributorship. Since no black businessman could get a beer distributorship in Columbus, Walter used his connections with Chicago to get the distributorship of Fox Deluxe Beer. Periodically, he made trips north to pick up cases of beer.

Ms. Huff showed us two framed messages that her father always displayed on his desk—one was the Serenity Prayer, and the other was the Mustard Seed Motto. The Serenity Prayer reads: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”. The Mustard Seed Motto says: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed…nothing shall be impossible”. Ms. Huff quietly explained that there were times when Mr. Lunsford had to sacrifice principle for the safety of his family. In 1944, when Primus King challenged the all white primary in Columbus, Walter’s mother, Lizzie Mae, once again stepped forward. As the case was heard in Macon, Lizzie Mae provided financial assistance and moral support with Walter and other black leaders, until the ruling of the circuit court brought an end to the all-white primary system in Georgia.

The Lunsford family grew and prospered. Lizzie Mae, the matriarch of the family, built a fine mansion on Lawyers Lane, where black leaders of national prominence were often entertained and offered lodging. During the turbulent 1950’s, especially after the death of Dr. Brewer in 1956, many local black leaders left town for safer locations. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on the front lawn of Lizzie Mae’s house. And yet the family drew strength from one another and persevered.

Lizzie Mae died in 1966, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Sally, Walter’s wife, died in 2002, a respected figure in both the white and black communities. When Walter died in 2006, the Georgia General Assembly recognized his many accomplishments by issuing a resolution in his honor—a reflection of how far the state has traveled since the war years, and a tribute as well to his mother, Lizzie Mae, who raised her children and grandchildren on the basis of a strong religious faith and high moral principles.