Looking Back… Louis Edward Waller
Courtesy of Phyllis Waller
Lou Waller marches to the post office in May 1964.
Courtesy of Phyllis Waller
Lou Waller mails letters at the post office in May 1964.
Courtesy of Washington County Historical Society
These headlines are from the Washington Reporter in May 1964.
Louis Edward Waller, who was 81 when he died in 2009, was posthumously inducted into the Washington County Historical Society’s Hall of Fame in March 2020.
The barrier-breaking achievements of Waller during his life were immeasurable. The honors and awards he received are seemingly innumerable. Indeed, Waller was a beacon of civic leadership for an entire community.
Waller was a pioneering leader in civil rights, business, philanthropy and community service. This one man’s name means so much in Washington County, but how did it come to be that way?
Waller’s grandfather, Luke Waller, was born into slavery in rural North Carolina and then became a sharecropper, raising tobacco. Lou Waller’s father, Louis Thomas Waller, came north to work in the coal mines in the 1920s, and married Hattie Davis. They settled in Marianna and that was where Louis Edward Waller entered the stage of Washington County’s history.
The Waller family moved to the city of Washington in the early 1930s, and young Louis attended school there. Lou excelled most in those subjects that called for his creative talents.
Waller’s school years were not only filled with academic lessons – there were also hard lessons in racial prejudice. Pre-World War II America, including in Washington, was still a highly-segregated system.
Waller grew up as a witness to that destructive system.
Upon graduation from Washington High School, Waller earned a degree from Dean Tech in Pittsburgh. After serving in the U.S. Army, he entered the business world as a draftsman and then spent a decade in the sale of fabricated steel products.
However, professional competence did not shield Waller from racial bias.
At one job, Waller was told to go in the back so he wouldn’t have to be seen by customers. In another case, when Lou’s wife, Shirley, gave birth to their first child in the hospital, she was not permitted to recover in the same room as a white mother who had also given birth.
Instead, Shirley Waller recovered in the hallway.
So, as Waller climbed the business ladder in the late 1950s, he also felt the need to ascend to a higher calling. At the age of 31, he took office as president of the NAACP’s Washington Branch in 1959.
Among the many initiatives during his tenure with the NAACP, Waller helped bring about a public discourse toward the elimination of segregation in Washington’s school system, which had persisted even after the landmarks U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
Waller helped lead the call for the swimming pool at Washington Park to be integrated in 1961. And in 1964, Waller organized and led the ‘March to the Post Office’ to urge passage of Civil Rights legislation.
The official history of the NAACP’s Washington Branch recorded that “at a time when communication was sorely needed between the black and white communities, Lou Waller’s talents surfaced and were invaluable. He was able to communicate the needs, frustrations and problems of the black community.”
Waller was just 35-years-old when he led the county’s landmark march.
“Yes, you can get people’s attention by throwing pebbles at the window, but you get more attention if you are able to be where the decisions are made,” Waller said of his particular approach to the civil rights movement.
In recognition of these accomplishments, Waller received the NAACP’s Human Rights Award in 1965. In 1970, Waller was appointed president of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches.
Meanwhile, Waller’s remarkable business career was flourishing in the 1960s and 1970s with McAnallen Corporation, where he became general manager and then president.
In 1986, Waller’s extensive experience in the building contracting sector led to his founding of Waller Corporation. Under his leadership, Waller Corporation became an award-winning contracting firm engaged in projects across Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Waller’s strong religious faith guided his course in life – he was a lifelong member of Nazareth Baptist Church and served the Church as a deacon and trustee. In addition, Waller enjoyed the immeasurable happiness of being a devoted husband to his wife, Shirley, and the father of three remarkable children.
Waller said he was devoted to his community with the firm belief that “the only way to serve God is to serve people.”
In addition to the NAACP, nearly 40 different area organizations benefited from his direct leadership and philanthropic efforts over the years, including Washington Hospital, Washington Financial Bank, Waynesburg University and Washington County Community Foundation.
After his passing in 2009, Shirley Waller described her late husband quite well with three simple words.
“He was a joiner, an artist, a builder,” she said.
Indeed, Waller’s life is a testament to what can be built with a strong faith, a pure heart and a willingness to serve.
Thomas Milhollan is Washington County Historical Society’s operations and development coordinator