Meet the Mothers
Rev. Harriett Walden
A Conversation With the Rev. Harriett Walden and The Church Council of Greater Seattle, December 2019
Co-Founder
What is happening in America now makes me even more determined that we have to fix this.
— Rev. Harriett Walden
Rev. Harriett Walden is a police accountability and peace activist. She has been working tirelessly for police accountability in the Seattle area for thirty years. After being angered by the brutal beating of her two teenage sons in 1990 she decided to model a healthy response. From her anger and determination, Mothers was formed. She gathered her friends and neighbors to help. The first Mothers’ meeting was held in September of 1990.
She encourages others to keep disrupting the status quo and advancing the work of black freedom fighters who came before them.
Rev. Walden has been appointed to the Seattle Citizens for Police Oversight Committee by the last two mayors. Rev. Walden has also been honored by the ACLU-W with a Civil Libertarian Award and the Seattle Urban League for Mothers for Police Accountability’s transformational work.
Lonnie Nelson
Founding Mother
1990-2015
Lonnie Nelson, was a life time fighter for union rights, equality, peace and socialism. She was arrested three times for civil disobedience: during the Indian fishing rights struggle, against South African apartheid, and in the mid-1990s against Republican Newt Gingrich’s “Contract on America” Medicare cuts.
Rev. Walden met Lonnie at Seattle Central Community College where we were both students. “I worked as a liaison with the Black Student Union. Lonnie came to my office and wanted BSU to sponsor a program to honor the life and work of Paul Robeson. This was the beginning of a lifetime of working with Lonnie.” Eventually MFPA began sponsoring an annual event honoring activists for their efforts in support of human rights in memory of Robeson.
Lonnie passed away from a stroke in 2014. Her 22 years of work with Mothers was foundational.
The Founding Board
Paquita Edwards, Janice Belt, the late Fabiola Woods and Willette Romlious are the original founders of Mothers for Police Accountability.
Current board
Patricia Valentine, Lynne Wilson and Sheri Day.