Faith > Fear
Faith conquers everything. Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith lives by and through the faith that has endured through many generations of her family.
Although she was born in Ohio, Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith feels like her soul is both northern and southern. Even as a newborn, she was taken straight to Little Texas, a small town between Tuskegee and Auburn, Alabama, to be presented to her elders. She spent her summers, holidays, and other occasions there while growing up.
Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith has Pan-African, Indigenous, and Anglo heritage in her family. Both sides of her family have Muscogee Creek lineage. Along with this, faith has played a huge role in her family, as her father was a pastor and her mother was a clergy.
Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith’s vocational career also aligns with her faith. She graduated from Kent State University with her Bachelor of Art in Communications, a Minor in Dance and Theater, and a Certificate in Religious Studies. She continued her education at Yale University Divinity School where she received her Master of Divinity degree. She finished her education at Princeton Theological Seminary where she received her Doctorate degree.
While she was a student, she was also working, and she was assigned student ministry vocations. Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith has always worked hard to provide for herself, and she put herself through school because of her work. She has worked at many churches, including Black churches in Harlem, Massachusetts (where she was ordained); New Haven, Connecticut; Alexandria, Virginia; Indianapolis, Indiana; and a multicultural church in Hartford, Connecticut. She felt her calling was in ministry, and eventually she became a full-time Associate Pastor at the church in Hartford. She was the youngest, and only African American woman, to lead the Council of Churches in Trenton, NJ after leaving the ministry in Hartford. She went on to become the Executive Director of the Council of Churches in Indianapolis. Now, she works in Washington D.C as a Strategist for Pan-African and Orthodox Faith Engagement at Bread for the World.
She gets to tell Congress “Don’t forget about those living on the margins” by advocating to end hunger and poverty, specifically with and for Pan-African communities.
Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith also has experience in mission service partnerships in over 30 countries in Africa, six of which she has lived in. She has also served in various other global contexts in her work. Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith has many multicultural experiences, yet her heart comes back to her Southern heritage in Alabama. She refers to her Southern roots as an “instrument to formation of identity.” Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith has lived through discrimination, desegregation, the integration of schools, among other monumental moments in history. What got her through was her identity in Christ, her loving family, and her loving church homes.
Coming from a family that has Pan-African, Anglo, and Indigenous heritage, Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith is profoundly grateful for her story of grace, which is a common story that is not often told. It is a story intertwined with a mixed lineage of European, Pan-African, and Indigenous identities subject to both formal and informal policies and practices that harmed her Indigenous and Pan-African ancestors and their descendants. This history, though hard, has shaped Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith.
Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith comes from a family of hard-workers that honors the faith, family, and homeland. Her family still owns and stewards the land previously stewarded by the three groups of her heritage, which is highly uncommon today. Only about 1% of American agricultural lands belongs to Pan-African peoples.
One of the most important things to Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith, other than her faith, is making sure children know their heritage and the true history of not only the country, but the world. “It is so important that the children know their stories,” she said. They need to hear all perspectives, not just the one in history books.
Everything always comes back to faith. Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith was blessed to have parents that were Christian and appreciated diversity, and who were unapologetic about their diverse roots. Her parents always knew who they were and whose they were, which is something they instilled in Rev. Dr. Walker-Smith. Her identity as God’s child carried her through racism and discrimination, and she is able to partner with and serve others who struggle to this day.
“With God all things are possible,” she said. “For God so loved whosoever, that’s me and you.”
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