David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

South, Robert E. Lee, the Civil War
general who led the Confederate Army
in its battle to defend slavery. That was
vintage Wyatt Walker. He was perfectly
happy to be carted off to jail for
breaking Petersburg’s segregation laws.
But he made sure to rub the town’s nose
in its own contradictions at the same
time.
In Birmingham, King, Walker, and
Fred Shuttlesworth formed a triumvirate.
Shuttlesworth was the longtime face of
the Birmingham civil rights struggle, the
local preacher whom the Klan could not
kill. King was the prophet, gracious and
charismatic. Walker stayed in the
shadows. He did not allow himself to be
photographed with King. Even in