Plaque, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Mrs. Walker helped vote President Roosevelt into office in 1932 and was even invited to his inaugural speech in 1933! Her support for Roosevelt, a Democrat, broke ranks with the majority of African American voters who continued to vote Republican. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 with just under 25% of the African American vote, a figure that was nearly tripled by the time he was re-elected in 1936. Since then, African American support for the Democratic party has been largely consistent which places Mrs. Walker on the cutting edge of a revolution that continues to affect our political landscape.