Edwin A. Walker (1909–1993)

A right-wing activist during the 1960s, native Texan Edwin A. Walker is most remembered for his involvement in the desegregation conflict at the University of Mississippi. He may also have been an assassination target in Dallas, Texas, several months before the death of President John F. Kennedy. Walker spent two pivotal years of his career in Little Rock (Pulaski County) and also played a key, if little known, role in the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis.

Edwin Anderson Walker was born on November 10, 1909, in South Point, a farming community in south-central Texas, to ranchers George Pinckney Walker and Charlotte Thornton Walker. Walker attended local public school and the New Mexico Military Institute before going to the Military Academy at West Point in 1927. He became an artillery officer in 1931.

During World War II, Walker led a regiment of the Special Service Force, forerunner of the Special Forces. Except for time leading artillery troops during the Korean War, Walker spent much of the post–World War II decade working out of the Pentagon. A highly decorated combat veteran, he had misgivings about restraints placed upon field commanders during the Cold War. By the time Walker joined the reactionary John Birch Society in 1959, he had come to identify openly with right-wing causes. This was due in no small part to his role at Central High.

In June 1957, the major general had been assigned by the Defense Department to command the Arkansas Military District. On September 23, President Dwight Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730 calling for the end of any obstruction to the African American students known as the Little Rock Nine attending Central High School in accordance to the law of the land. Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker instructed Walker to enforce the order. Using a combined force of the federalized Arkansas National Guard and members of the U.S. Army’s 101^st Airborne Division, Walker devised a plan whereby paratroopers would guard Central High “in the event of civil disturbances.”

Arkansas governor Orval Faubus characterized Walker as being “Commander of the Little Rock Occupational Forces,” but the major general saw his job differently, explaining it to Central’s student body in the following terms: “I intend to use all means necessary to prevent any interference with the execution of your school board’s plan….Those who interfere or disrupt the proper administration of the school will be removed by the soldiers on duty and turned over to the local police for disposition in accordance with the laws of your community.” Walker also observed that the school board intended to undertake “a very gradual abandonment of the separate school system.”

After weeks of unrest surrounding their attendance, the nine Black students went to their classes at Central High School on September 25, 1957, escorted and guarded by U.S. Army troops. As the school year progressed, by October 1, most of the enforcement duty was turned over to the National Guard troops, and the U.S. Army troops were completely removed by the end of November. The National Guard presence was phased out in the spring of 1958.

Despite his role, Walker privately thought domestic use of federal troops was unconstitutional. Walker’s political views were known to people around him. Arkansas newspaperman Harry Ashmore met Walker at least once in the 1950s. Ashmore said that he told a Pentagon contact that he had been shown “extreme rightwing tracts” by the outwardly composed Walker.

Walker attempted to resign from the U.S. Army in August 1959, although it would mean losing his pension. Unwilling to risk controversy over a respected military professional resigning in the midst of the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration offered Walker command of an infantry division in West Germany. Waker accepted the posting, but press allegations soon emerged that an indoctrination program for soldiers under his new command included John Birch Society publications. An army probe held under the administration of John F. Kennedy admonished Walker for his actions. However, the major general’s “Pro-Blue” program essentially conformed to an Eisenhower administration directive a year earlier mandating the political education of civilians and service members. During this investigation, Walker was guest of honor at a luncheon on Capitol Hill organized by Arkansas congressman Dale Alford. Several weeks later, President Kennedy offered Walker a command in Hawaii. Walker again offered his resignation, and Kennedy eventually accepted it.

Running in the Democratic primary for Texas governor in 1962 (but placing last), Walker was a harsh critic of all postwar presidential administrations, denouncing their “unwritten policy of collaboration and collusion with the international Communist conspiracy.” He was also a major leader of the campaign against desegregation at the University of Mississippi. After violence erupted on campus in September 1962, Walker was charged with sedition by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and briefly held for psychiatric evaluation at a special government facility in Missouri. During the spring and summer of 1963, Walker and evangelist Billy Jean Hargis spoke to groups in southern and midwestern cities about “international communism.”

In April 1963, someone apparently shot at Walker when he was at home in Dallas; the Warren Commission later blamed Lee Harvey Oswald. The former general was associated with protests against United Nations ambassador Adlai Stevenson when Stevenson was visiting Dallas in October, although Walker was not present. He was also apparently away from the city when President Kennedy was killed there several weeks later.

Subsequent years were of a somewhat lower key for Walker. On at least one occasion, in May 1964, he returned to Little Rock to speak to a small gathering sponsored by the Capital Citizens’ Council. In the mid-1970s, he had two uncontested misdemeanor arrests for soliciting sexual favors from Dallas undercover policemen in public bathrooms. Despite the arrests, the local press continued to publish Walker’s editorials. He never married and had no children. In response to appeals, the army reinstated Walker’s pension in 1982.

Walker died at home of lung cancer on October 31, 1993.

For additional information:
Adams, Peter. The Insurrectionist: Major General Edwin A. Walker and the Birth of the Deep State Conspiracy. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2023.

Ashmore, Harry. Hearts and Minds: A Personal Chronicle of Race in America. Cabin John, MD: Seven Locks Press, 1988.

Cravens, Chris. “Edwin A. Walker and the Right Wing in Dallas, 1960–1966.” Master’s thesis, Southwest Texas State University, 1991.

Edwin A. Walker Papers. Briscoe Center for American History. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.

Oakley, Robert W. Operation Arkansas. Washington DC: Histories Division, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1967.

“Milestone Documents: Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957).” U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-10730 (accessed May 6, 2026).

“Text of General’s Address at School.” New York Times, September 26, 1957, 12.

“Walker Says U.S. Perfects Power Abuse.” Dallas Times Herald, May 19, 1964, B13.

Webb, Clive. Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010.

Anthony B. Newkirk
Little Rock Central High School