Walter E. Fauntroy
| Walter E. Fauntroy | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington, D.C.'s At-large district |
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In office March 23, 1971 – January 3, 1991 Delegate |
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| Preceded by | Norton Chipman (1875) |
| Succeeded by | Eleanor Holmes Norton |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Walter Edward Fauntroy February 6, 1933 Washington, D.C. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothy Simms (m. 1957) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education |
Virginia Union University Yale University |
| Profession | Pastor, activist, politician |
| Religion | Baptist |
Walter Edward Fauntroy (born February 6, 1933) is the former pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and a civil rights activist. He is also a former delegate to the United States Congress and was a candidate for the 1972 and 1976 Democratic presidential nominations as a favorite son, as well as a human rights activist. His stated life work is to advocate public policy that "declares Good News to the poor, that binds up the broken hearted and sets at liberty them that are bound" in the United States and around the world.
In 2012, Fauntroy disappeared and presumably fled the United States after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest in conjunction with allegations he had written a fraudulent check for $55,000. Fauntroy's wife was eventually forced to file for bankruptcy. While his whereabouts were initially unknown to even his family, it was assumed Fauntroy was living somewhere in the Persian Gulf. In 2016, Fauntroy returned to the United States and was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport. He had been hiding in Ajman, the capital of the Emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates.
The fourth of seven children, Walter Fauntroy was born and raised in Washington, D.C.. His mother, Ethel (Vines) Fauntroy, was a homemaker. His father, William Thomas Fauntroy, Sr., was a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office. Walter grew up in the Shaw community in Northwest Washington, and attended the New Bethel Baptist Church just a few blocks from his home.
He graduated second in his class at Washington's all-black Dunbar High School in 1951, and the members of his church held fund-raising dinners to provide him with a college scholarship. When he graduated from Dunbar in 1952, his church gave him enough money to pay for his first year at Virginia Union University in Richmond. He pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity while at Virginia Union, from where he graduate with honors in 1955, and then earned a degree in divinity from Yale.
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