As a young man in Savannah in the 1960s, Willie Bolden earned a living carrying luggage for guests at a swank all-white hotel and shooting pool in Charlie Brown’s pool hall on West Broad Street.
He was fired from the hotel job because he disobeyed an order to lock the front doors to keep out African American demonstrators who were protesting all-white policies at Savannah hotels and restaurants. His talents in the pool hall then became especially important, and, by his account, he was good at it.
“My pockets were swole up like they had the mumps,” Bolden said in a video made for the University of Georgia Libraries and Young Harris College.
One day, Bolden said in the video, he was playing nine ball, “just about to bank the eight ball,” when a nice looking man came up and asked if he could talk to him. On the video, Bolden said he sat down “arrogantly” and listened to the man, who invited Bolden to come to a civil rights rally. As he listened that evening to the man at the rally, his life was changed.
Afterward, Bolden shook the man’s hand.
“Willie, I am so glad you came,” said the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the man who would become a loyal foot soldier.
From 1961 until Jan. 19, 2016, Bolden worked for civil rights, serving as one of King’s lieutenants and in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
He was Wagon Master for the 1968 Mule Train from Marks, Miss. to Washington, D.C., for the Poor People’s Campaign. He organized demonstrations in the deep South where, said those who knew him,he was often beaten, sometimes while protecting others from the clubs and fists of police. He remained active, recently traveling to Ferguson, Mo., to teach principles of non-violence to those protesting the shooting of an unarmed African American man.
The Rev. Willie Marion Bolden died from cardiac disease on Jan. 19 at the hospice unit at Emory University Hospital Midtown said his daughter, Felicia Bolden Mobley.
Her father “never met a stranger,” Mobley said, and “was always available,” not just to the family but also to anyone who needed it.
“He spoke in Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia,” Mobley said.
Bolden was born to Phoebe and Charles Bolden on Dec. 7, 1938, in Sumter, South Carolina, but grew up in Savannah. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After he finished his service, he returned to Savannah, where he met King.
While mesmerized with King’s message, Bolden told him that he didn’t know if he could abide by the ethic of non-violence.
“‘You know I’m an ex-Marine, and if somebody spits on me…I can’t handle that non-violent stuff,’” Bolden said he told him. King convinced him, however, saying “We’re gonna turn this country upside down” with two books — “the Holy Bible” and Gandhi’s book on non-violence.
Bolden worked full-time for eight years with the SCLC, traveling all over the South, putting into practice what he learned.
“Willie Bolden was one of the best field staff we ever had,” said the Rev. Joseph Lowery. “He was loyal to the movement, he was committed, and he faced danger with courage. I love Willie Bolden. We’ve lost one of our most loyal, hardest-working activists in the movement. He was fearless.”
In 1970, Bolden married Georgianna Dean and soon after, went away to college. He did not earn an undergraduate degree, but was accepted into a graduate program at Harvard University, where he graduated with a master’s degree in 1972.
Back in Atlanta, Bolden worked as a union representative with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 1644. He also served as director of personnel for the Atlanta Fulton Public Library.
Bolden served as a deacon at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Atlanta. He was ordained as a minister in 1991 and served as associate minister and pastor in churches in Atlanta and Cedartown.
“He was a great mentor for a lot of young people,” said Bernard LaFayette, Jr., chairman of the national board of the SCLC. “He was always patient, and he would drop what he was doing to help you.”
Bunnie Ransom-Jackson, a longtime friend and former wife of the late Mayor Maynard Jackson, said Bolden had been part of workshops that taught youngsters, including her grandson, Luke Jackson, how to protect themselves when under attack.
Bolden was inducted in 2012 into the Trumpet Awards Walk of Fame, won an Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement Award from the national office of the NSLC, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Foot Soldier Award from the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP.
Mobley said she was happy that Bolden lived long enough to welcome his newest grandson, Dylon, into the world four months ago. The family also celebrated one last New Year’s Eve together, drinking cider and spending time together at the Boldens’ home.
“We had apple cider, we toasted and we prayed,” Mobley said.
A memorial service and civil rights tribute is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 29, by the Eta Omega chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, from 7-9 p.m., at the
Bethlehem Baptist Church, 3646 Hogan Rd., S.W., Atlanta.
A celebration of his life is Saturday, Jan. 30, at 1 p.m. at Friendship Community Church, 4141 Old Fairburn Rd., College Park.
In addition to wife Georgiana and daughter Felicia, Bolden is survived by daughters Charlesetta Bolden Legier of Staten Island, New York, and Michelle Bolden of Brooklyn; a son, Rodney Bolden, of Savannah; and 13 grandchildren, including Tykesha, Trayon, Stanley, LaTima, Eugene, Antoine, Telia, Rodney, Jayla, Silas, Derrione, Dallis and Dylon.
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