Pasadena NAACP Mourns Loss of Walter Shatford

Our advisor and friend Walter Shatford’s contribution as a Civil Rights attorney and a 40-year board member of the Pasadena NAACP will long be remembered.

What a committed man he was to this organization! His quest to ensure and bring full equality under the law to all Americans was the hallmark of his practice. His advocacy, dedication and direct involvement in Los Angeles County, the Pasadena area and the Civil Rights movement have developed a lasting impact. His legal tactics increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and a greater exposure of the prevalence and cost of racism.

Yet not always out-front, the push for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s witnessed great changes in American society, thanks in part to attorneys like Mr. Walter Shatford. From Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery bus boycott, the march on Washington, the freedom riders and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (that guaranteed basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race), Attorney Shatford’s stamp of approval and legal framework were behind many of them.

His thorough knowledge and legal genius of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (that officially ended slavery in 1865), led Attorney Shatford to realize that civil rights are the story of America’s caste system … where the use of laws, courts, prisons, and violence reined to keep the bias system in place.

I believe when history books are re-written, the name of Attorney Walter Shatford will be included and should resonate and ring in the ears as a constant reminder of past struggles. This great scholar who worked with the Pasadena NAACP and all over the United States is forever remembered as one who tried to stamp out bigotry and bring about on-going social change.

Joe Brown, President
Pasadena NAACP