Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) (Left) and Republican candidate Hershel Walker (right) are the party’s main contenders in the Georgia Senate race.
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Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) (Left) and Republican candidate Hershel Walker (right) are the party’s main contenders in the Georgia Senate race.
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The top candidates for the U.S. Senate from Georgia were born just 115 miles and seven years apart, to poor black families who have lived in the state for generations.
As Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican soccer star Herschel Walker compete in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, each brings their own unique experiences. when black men grew up in southern Georgia during the twilight of the civil rights movement. That history has informed the lives of both – and their opposing views on race and racism echo on the campaign trail now and possibly, as they go head-to-head on the field. debate stage in Savannah Friday night.
“23andMe has upset us,” Walker said at a recent rally outside of Atlanta, referring to the brand of home genetic tests commonly used to identify countries or regions of origin. of a person. “My color doesn’t matter. A house can’t be divided so I want us to be together.”
Walker has recently been under surveillance for allegations of domestic abuse and violence as well as report that he paid for his ex-girlfriend’s abortion even though, as a candidate, he donate an outright ban on the no-exceptional procedure.
Walker is no stranger to controversies in this election and he has also caused a stir about the way he talks about race, saying Democrats like his opponents use it to divide turn.
As a senator, candidate, and senior pastor at Dr. Martin Luther King Baptist Church in Atlanta, Warnock has spoken frequently about eliminating systemic racism. In his first floor speech In the Senate, Warnock introduced new nationwide restrictive voting laws.
“This is Jim Crow in new clothes,” he said.
Contradictory approaches to grappling with race dropped markedly in the first Senate race in Georgia history to nominate two Black men. Walker and Warnock’s worldviews began to differ decades ago – when Walker shone on the field and Warnock stepped onto the podium.
“These are two of the most important institutions for questions of democracy and equality,” explains Leah Wright Rigueur, a political historian at Johns Hopkins University.
“For many Black communities, the institution of the church is a lifeline. It is a space of organization and advocacy.”
When Walker played football and track and field at Johnson County High School, it had only been a few years of integration.
Georgia Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker is best known as a professional soccer player, college and later high school, college
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Georgia Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker is best known as a professional soccer player, college and later high school, college
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“I just stepped out to be a great athlete,” he told rapper Killer Mike in one interview on WABE. “And I think my high school was probably 50-50 black-and-white.”
In Walker’s memoirs, he writes about overcoming fear with the Ku Klux Klan. He recalled their members stalking Negro children as they walked home from school, dragging them into the woods for a mockery.
“There was a widespread misconception about life in the 1980s in the South,” says Riguer. “There is still an economically unequal society that is very segregated for African-Americans.”
For Warnock, that society is Savannah, Georgia and the public housing estate where he grew up. As a teenager, Warnock spent hours at a nearby library listening to archival recordings from the civil rights movement – especially King’s speeches.
An undated photograph of young Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) outside the public housing complex where he grew up
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An undated photograph of young Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) outside the public housing complex where he grew up
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“There are men who stand up to the pulpit and preach every Sunday, but they can look at racial injustice and never open their mouths against it,” bellowed King in a photo-optimized sermon. Special favors for Warnock – “A Knock at Midnight. “
“He preached a different kind of gospel than I usually hear in most churches,” Warnock wrote in his memoirs. “He used the lens of the scriptures to examine and speak out against racial injustice and oppression.”
Warnock continued to be influenced by King when he chose his college: Morehouse College, the historic black school in Atlanta that King attended four decades earlier. Warnock enrolled as an assistant at the King Memorial Chapel on campus. The dean, Lawrence Carter, became Warnock’s mentor.
“Extremely confident, matured over the years,” Carter recalled Warnock in an interview. “He seemed to be in an area alone. He went to the chapel library often, with no one else there, studying and writing.”
It was at the chapel where Warnock’s ideas about racial justice and faith came together.
“When our chapel is packed and our 6,000 pipes ring in their ears, surrounded by people doing daring things, it sends iron down your spine,” says Carter. “And when you see injustice, you want to do something about it.”
At the same age, Herschel Walker will soon be called upon to speak for herself in Wrightsville.
Walker had just led Johnson County High School to a state football championship in 1980. It was national news when Walker accepted full-time play for the University of Georgia. A few days later, Wrightsville again caught the attention of the country.
Protests against racial injustice broke out, targeting the county’s white sheriff. When the marchers gathered, they were met with violence. The Klan mobilized and the governor called in the state’s army, while schools and factories closed. Local residents and suburban civil rights leaders insist Let Wrightsville’s most famous resident speak.
“It was like, ‘Oh Herschel, you have to do this, you have to do it,'” Walker said.
“Whites call him the N-word and he is black and blacks call him Uncle Tom,” said Tom Jordan, Walker’s track and field coach and early mentor, in an interview. . “And he’s just looking for his place.”
Walker faced pressure as he weighed his own decision about whether to do something about racial injustices in Wrightsville.
Republican Senate candidate in Georgia Hershel Walker in an archived photo speaking to the press as a student at the University of Georgia
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Republican Senate candidate in Georgia Hershel Walker in an archived photo speaking to the press as a student at the University of Georgia
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“I called a team meeting,” athletic coach Tom Jordan recalls. “I said, ‘Look, guys, you can’t get in shape for a track meet parade. You have to run. Training is at three years old and you know I can’t skip it.”
More than a dozen of Walker’s teammates dropped out of the track team. Walker is not.
“My parents taught me to do what’s right,” Walker said afterward. “There is no color in right and wrong.”
He did not say anything public about the protests.
“What if I go the other way?” Walker told Killer Mike. “Where will I be today? Because now I have the opportunity where I can get a seat at the table.”
The seat at that table could be in the US Senate.
Historian Leah Wright Rigeuer explains: “The political stance and rejection of race as a consideration are not representative of the African-American audience. “However, that is the view of the majority of working-class white voters in the state of Georgia.”
Rigueur, who wrote a book titled The Loneliness of the Black Republican Party, says these views are not an anomaly — citing, for example, Georgia-born Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative members of the bench. Rigueur says these views should not be ignored or treated as fringe views, especially when coming from those who have had a huge impact on shaping American life.
“We should understand that for what it tells us about the nature of Black politics, as well as the questions about American democracy,” Rigueur said.
During this campaign, the two men have offered conflicting descriptions of the country’s current divisions, as they compete in an election that most polls suggest is a overthrow and can determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
“We are not a racist country,” Walker said at a recent rally. “The United States is the greatest country in the world today, and it’s time we get leaders who know it.”
“Within 24 hours, we elected Georgia’s first African-American and Jewish senators,” Warnock said last year on the Senate floor. “A few hours later, the Capitol was attacked. We saw in just a few precious hours, the tension so vividly alive in the soul of America. And the question that confronts all of us at every moment is who are we? What will it take to get us on the right track?”
The lives of Warnock and Walker take them in two different directions, and Georgia voters will choose which candidate they want to follow.
