Former D.C. representative and civil rights movement icon Walter Fauntroy said he left the United States not because of the bench warrant for a bad check, but to help people in underserved countries.
Former District of Columbia Rep. Walter Fauntroy points to a photograph he holds in his Washington office showing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr in a 1963 civil rights march March 29, 1993. Fauntroy, who headed the House committee that investigated Kings assassination, has joined historians calling for an independent re-investigation of the civil rights leaders death 25 years ago in Memphis.
(AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi
Coretta Scott King, center, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., talks to reporters outside of the Justice Department, Wednesday, April 8, 1998, in Washington after meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno. Mrs. King is flanked by former U. N. Ambassador Andrew Young, far left; her son Dexter; her daughter, The Rev. Bernice King; and Washington, D.C. Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy, right. Mrs. King told reporters she had presented new evidence about the 1968 assassination of her husband.
(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Civil rights leader Wyatt Tee Walker, left, is introduced by civil rights leader Walter Fauntroy, right, during a rally at the National Press Club in Washington, Tuesday, July 2, 2008 to present a retrospective of where the nation has come in the 45 years since Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
In this photo provided by the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), former Washington congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy is shown. CBP officers arrested Fauntroy at Dulles International Airport, Monday, June 27, 2016, on an outstanding arrest warrant for failure to appear and fraud, insufficient funds check out of Prince George’s County, Md., after returning home from a four-year sojourn in the Persian Gulf, according to authorities.
(Customs and Border Patrol via AP)
WASHINGTON — For the first time since paying restitution for a bad check for $55,000 in 2009, D.C.’s first congressional delegate Walter Fauntroy is setting the record straight about why he disappeared in 2012 to the Middle East.
At a luncheon Friday honoring him, the reverend, former D.C. representative and civil rights movement icon said he left the United States not because of the bench warrant for a bad check, but to help people in underserved countries.
“I went to try to get this dream of everybody having five things, income, education, health care and justice,” Fauntroy said during the event during the Congressional Black Caucus weekend.
Fauntroy spent four years as an overseas fugitive before returning in June. He was placed under arrest at Dulles airport for the warrant out of Prince George’s County, Maryland.
It was announced Monday that Fauntroy had paid restitution to an event planner, which led to all the charges against him being dropped.
At the event held at a downtown D.C. hotel, Fauntroy was greeted with applause by those in attendance, including D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who spoke fondly on Fauntroy as she recalled his work organizing the 1963 walk on Washington and his activism in calling for Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in South Africa.
“Man, I am so glad to have you back, you scared us,” Norton said.
