Darren Walker was not supposed to run the Ford Foundation. Born to a single mother in Louisiana in 1959, Walker grew up Black and poor in rural Texas. “I think I was always a strange little gay boy,” he says with a laugh. “I was fortunate. My mother gave me unconditional love, and so I never felt out of place or unwelcome.”
Who knew Beula Spencer’s strange little boy would one day become the 10th president of the Ford Foundation, a private philanthropic organization with the goal of advancing human welfare and social change. Founded in 1936 by Edsel and Henry Ford, the Ford Foundation is one of the wealthiest private foundations in the world, with a reported endowment of over $16.8 billion. Since 2013, Walker has overseen the entire operation.
Today, after almost 13 years, is leaving his post. On a Zoom from his home on the east side of Manhattan, Walker chats with Vanity Fair while sitting in his kitchen, intricately decorated with art and photos of Black luminaries like Muhammad Ali and James Baldwin. “I have all sorts of things pinned on it—an inspiration wall,” he says.
Marty Baron, José Carlos Zamora, Amal Clooney, George Clooney, Melinda French Gates, Walker, and Fatou Baldeh attend the Clooney Foundation For Justice’s The Albies.Taylor Hill/Getty Images.
Inspiration is a core tenet of Walker’s new book, The Idea of America. Published on September 3 and featuring a foreword by Bill Clinton, the book is a 500-plus page compilation of Walker’s speeches, essays, and musings about the promise and pitfalls of our nation—and how to remain optimistic even in our current political landscape. “I believe in this country because it made my journey possible,” says Walker.
A graduate of the University of Texas’s undergraduate program and law school, Walker says that federally funded social programs like the Pell Grant are responsible for getting him to where he is today. “There were so few barriers to my getting on that mobility escalator,” he says. “I was in the first Head Start program. I went to great public schools. I proudly assert that I have never had a day of private education in my life. That is because my country believed in my potential, and that manifests in the kinds of policies and programs and private philanthropy.”
Walker decided to write his book, which he calls “a love letter to America,” after reflecting on the multitude of essays he’d written and speeches he’d given at both universities and Fortune 500 companies. He quickly realized “how prescient and timely many of them remain,” he says. “I wrote about the growing skepticism of capitalism by younger people. I wrote several about extremism and polarization and how we had been growing intolerant on both sides. On the right and the left, there was less willingness to tolerate, to engage, to even think about building consensus with people who we disagreed with—and how harmful that is for our democracy.”
