Walker Business College, also known as Walker Business College for Colored,[1] and Walker's Commercial and Vocational College,[2] was a former business school and vocational school specifically for African Americans which was founded c. 1916 and closed c. 1967,[3][2] and located in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, and later Macon, Georgia.[2][4][3] The school advertised as, "the largest colored business college in the United States".[1]
Richard Wendell Walker was the co-founder and served as the school's first president.[3] Richard Wendell Walker was from Kansas and he had attended Fairmont University in Wichita, and Topeka Business College in Topeka, Kansas.[5] Julia Brown Walker, the spouse of Richard Wendell Walker, was a co-founder and also served as a secretary and president of the school.[6][7][2] Former NAACP president and civil rights activist, Johnnie H. Goodson taught tailoring classes at the school.[8]
Walker Business College offered both day and night classes.[3] The courses at Walker Business College included secretarial training, office machines, bookkeeping, accounting, and insurance.[6] The school also had a trade division and offered courses in upholstering, tailoring, dressmaking, and radio and television.[6]
The college was located at 417-Y2 Broad Street, and later moved to 9th Street and Myrtle Avenue in Jacksonville.[6] It later moved to 319 Broad Street, Jacksonville.[2] In 1929, the school opened a second location in Macon, Georgia.[5]
The Florida State Archives includes a photograph of students at the Walker Business College.[4]