Walter E. Fauntroy
Walter Edward Fauntroy (born
February 6,
1933) was the first Delegate elected to the
United States House of Representatives from the
District of Columbia in the
20th century. He was born in
Washington, DC, and studied at Virginia Union University,
Richmond, Virginia and at
Yale University Divinity School. He became a pastor, serving from
1959 to the present. He was the founder and director of the Model Inner City Community Organization, a director of the Washington Bureau of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, vice chairman of the District of Columbia City Council, vice chairman of the
White House Conference to Fulfill These Rights, national coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign, chairman of the board of directors of the
Martin Luther King, Jr Center for Social Change in
Atlanta, Georgia, a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in
1972.
Fauntroy was elected as a Democrat as Delegate to the House, serving from March 23, 1971 - January 3, 1991. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1990, but was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Washington.
He still lives in Washington.