Our History

The Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys was organized in 2006 as the Episcopal Diocese of Washington's response to the serious educational challenges facing African American boys in the low-income communities east of the Anacostia River. The school, named in honor of

founding board
Bishop Walker School for Boys Founding Board:

1st row: The Rev.Preston Hannibal , Sandi Hannibal, Weedie Block, Evie Rooney, Iris Harris, Tawana Purnell, Rev. William Lewis, Bishop John Bryson Chane
2nd row: Marcy Cathey, Tricia Pinkard, Jane Pontius, Nicholas Fels, Rev. Janice Robinson, Concha Johnson
3rd row: James Woody, John Thorne, Sara Thorne, Peter Barrett, James Lowe, Rev. Vincent Harris, Stuart Work, Herman Bostick
Founding Board members not pictured - Richard Beatty, Maria Walker and Martha Webb
Photo by Valerie Woodyeast of the Anacostia River. The school, named in honor of the first African American bishop of the diocese, is a tuition-free independent school, rooted in the traditions of Episcopal education, current research on boys' social and intellectual development, a progressive educational approach and the educational philosophy of Bishop Walker.

the first African American bishop of the diocese, is a tuition-free independent school, rooted in the traditions of Episcopal education, current research on boys's social and intellectual development, a progressive educational approach, and the educational philosophy of Bishop Walker.

The Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys formally opened in 2008 with a single class of 13 four year olds and a staff consisting of three classroom teachers and an administrator, Reverend Kwasi Thornell, who also served as chaplain. The school was located in the basement of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Anacostia. In 2009, the school hired a Head of School, Angela G. Garcia and promoted the Director of External Operations, James R. Woody, to Executive Director. The school currently serves 85 students in grades Kindergarten to fifth. 

In 2010, after completing a $2.8 million renovation of the Church of the Holy Communion in Congress Heights, the school moved to 3640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE and continued to expand its program and add a grade each year until 2016.

bishop t walker
In the fall of 2013, the Bishop John T. Walker School opened a second site where the third through sixth grade classes were housed. Located at 2683 Douglass Road, SE the site was a temporary location for the upper primary grades. In 2012, the board of the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) chose the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys as its preferred partner to provide education to boys on their campus. THEARC owns the building, and BWS occupies the space under a long-term lease agreement. The new space was built to the school's exact specifications and therefore, customized for the boys' educational needs. This partnership enables the students to enjoy the wide array of resources available at THEARC including a gymnasium, a state of the art theater, the Levine School of Music, the Washington Ballet, and Children's National Medical Center. The Bishop Walker School's first day of school at THEARC was January 8, 2018.