Patricia Walker Bearden and Yolanda Walker Simmons

Patricia Walker Bearden and Yolanda Walker Simmons are the granddaughters of Alex Walker, one of the few people convicted of an offense connected with the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre. Both retired educators, the sisters live in Chicago and were unaware of the family’s link to the traumas of 1906 until their father told them during on oral history session on his 85th birthday more than 30 years ago. In 1906, Alex Walker and his wife, Julia, were living in Brownsville, a middle-class African-American neighborhood in south Atlanta. Walker worked as a bellhop at the Kimball House hotel. He was on the job when the Massacre erupted downtown on the night of Sept. 22. Read Patricia and Yolanda Walker’s full bio