-Courtesy Photo
The effervescent MC of a local cable TV show, Ralph Walker has, once again, opened some eyes in Monrovia regarding a historic Nelson Mandela connection.
Walker, host of the show “Conversations with Ralph Walker” on KGEM-TV, spoke to the Monrovia City Council recently about that connection.
In 1993, Walker was involved in the planning of a concert at the Baha’i Center in Los Angeles. Organizers tasked him with getting some notable people to attend, and Walker called then Mayor Bob Bartlett. The picture we’ve published shows Bartlett and Walker as well as other dignitaries including a South African Consulate representative.
Bartlett agreed to issue a proclamation declaring the city’s opposition to apartheid, a system of racial segregation and discrimination black South Africans lived under for decades. Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist, spend 27 years in prison for fighting against the system.
Walker contacted the South African consulate in Beverly Hills and received the new South African flag for the celebration.
Walker said at the council meeting that modeling Mandela and spreading forgiveness could be a world changer.
At Walker’s suggestion, Councilman Tom Adams called for Walker’s South African flag, as well as Bartlett’s proclamation or some information about it, to be displayed at City Hall where it now temporarily resides.
Nelson Mandella died in December 2013.
