Charles D. Walton

Charles Dee Walton (born 1948) is an American retired politician and higher education administrator. He was the first African American elected to the Rhode Island Senate, serving from 1983 through 2002 as a Democrat representing South Providence. Walton was also the first African-American Rhode Island Senate president pro tempore. He later served as an associate dean at the Community College of Rhode Island.

Early life and education Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on July 13, 1948, Charles Dee Walton was raised in Washington, D.C. He received his bachelor's degree from Shaw University in 1971 and his PhD in educational administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1974. He moved to Rhode Island in the mid-1970s for a position at Roger Williams University and then became director of the Urban Education Center in Providence. He also became active in the National Urban League and NAACP, which during the early 1980s sued the state over racially gerrymandered Rhode Island Senate districts and prevailed in federal court. He also helped lead a successful movement for the State of Rhode Island to divest from apartheid South Africa. Senate leaders negotiated with the plaintiffs to redraw district lines, leading to the 2004 election of Harold Metts, a Black man, as well as Pichardo's reelection.