Charles W. Walker Sr., the Augusta businessman who wielded immense political power as the Georgia General Assembly's first Black Senate majority leader, has died, according to his family. He was 78.
"His legacy will live on through the leaders he influenced, the progress he helped advance and the countless people he inspired to engage in public service," Augusta-Richmond County Democrats said in a statement Tuesday, hours after the Walker family announced his death.
Under Atlanta's Gold Dome, Walker gained political clout serving eight years in the state House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990 and 12 years in the state Senate.
His colleagues elected him Senate majority leader
in 1996. As a hardnosed power broker at the state level, he earned the nickname "The Hammer" and became a political kingmaker for Augusta candidates seeking local elected office.
A federal court convicted Walker in 2005 on 127 charges, including mail fraud, tax evasion, theft, misuse of campaign funds and conspiracy. Authorities released Walker in 2016.
Walker's self-published 2015 autobiography – From Peanuts to Power: The Road to Wealth, Success and Happiness – detailed his upbringing in an impoverished family of Burke County sharecroppers who moved to the south side of Augusta's Laney-Walker neighborhood.
Starting in the early 1970s with his own income tax business, Walker became the architect of a network of businesses called The Walker Group, which he said in a 2000 Augusta Chronicle interview had grossed more than $20 million in 1999.
"There were so many crossroads in my life where if I had turned left instead of turning right, I wouldn't be here today," Walker said.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Influential Augusta leader Charles W. Walker Sr. dies at 78
