“Nothing great comes easy and anything that comes easy is not great,” said Rev. Walter Tucker III.
On Tuesday, December 12, Tucker held a book signing at the Sentinel of his first of a series of books entitled, “From Compton to Congress – His Grace For My Race.”
The book chronicles the details of his life as he quickly rose to stardom on the political scene and eventually fell from grace after being indicted on federal charges. This non-fiction, legal and political drama is a culmination of lessons learned and blessings unfolded.
“It’s a book that has been 17 years in the making, it’s my memoirs and it’s the first of three parts,” said Tucker. “
He’s been a teacher, lawyer, mayor of Compton, congressman and eventually ended up in prison. His life has been a rollercoaster ride full of drops, turns and then a sudden stop—but as Tucker would tell you, it was all part of God’s plan. Now, the pastor at Truth and Love Christian Church in Carson, Tucker has brought his story to the coffee table.
“This book is a testimonial about the first third of my life, a lot of things that happened 25 years ago that people knew about, heard about in the press, in the news because my life was lived out as a public figure but they didn’t know the inside story,” said Tucker.
At the age of 35, Tucker was the youngest African-American from California to be elected to a U.S. Congressional seat. He fought the federal indictment charges but lost and spent a year in prison. In his book, readers will travail his path and learn other facts along the way.
“This is not just a history book, it is a historical account,” said Tucker. “It engages the reader right away—it’s a page turner.
“It tells you the story about an extremely important community—Compton, which was the first city, west of the Mississippi, to gain a Black mayor in 1969. So before Inglewood, before Oakland—Compton!
“Compton, as we now see, has had such an impact on the Black experience. This book tells you another side and slice of Compton that has been untold.”
Tucker also shares that his book gives readers a look inside the Tucker family and how he took on the mantle of his father, Mayor Walter R. Tucker II, after his untimely passing.
“From Compton to Congress – His Grace For My Race” is a book almost two decades in the making and Tucker promises intrigue, insight and wisdom learned. Both he and his mother, Martha Tucker, worked on it together and shared what they learned in the process of putting this book together.
“How to overcome impatience,” said Tucker. “It was impatience that caused me to make some bad decisions and in the book, I become very transparent and translucent about the good, the bad and the ugly choices that I made.”
“It’s the rising star, the hard fall, God’s redemption, that’s what this story is and young people can read this in every urban city in America,” said Martha.
“God doesn’t work in our time,” said Tucker, “Everybody, even though God has promised you some things, has got to learn to grow in faith, hope, love and patience—that’s really something I want people to take away from this book.”
