Bessie's Prayer: "I Am Walter, Bessie's Son"

“A delightful read, full of charm and warmth and abiding love of family.” —Marcia Wattson

Bessie’s Prayer is a vivid and wondrous memoir of love for family, faith, and adventure by African American Catholic author Walter D. Braud. From the Great Black Migration and life in Chicago to a triumphant law career and Chief Judgeship in the heart of the Midwest.

Walter Braud offers a memoir of gratitude, joy, and celebration of the enduring power and love of family. He credits his remarkable mother, Bessie, and her very specific prayers for him, which he knows made all the difference in his life. His story begins during the era of the first great migration from the US South by so many Black individuals and families like his own grandparents who each sought greater opportunities in the North. Never feeling “poor” despite the circumstances of his childhood on the South Side of Chicago, he was inspired by his family heritage of schoolteachers, musicians, and an uncle who was a superstar baseball player.

Though this child prodigy and natural performer did not achieve the particular “first” his family envisioned for him as the first Negro opera tenor to perform in Carnegie Hall, he blazed his own series of firsts in his quest to live up to his mother’s goals for him—to put God and family above all things, pursue worthwhile endeavors, and help others before you help yourself. Walter will be the first to say that he fell way short on too many occasions. “But I gave it my best shot every day of my life. No regrets!”

“A delightful read, full of charm and warmth and abiding love of family.” —Marcia Wattson, ret. senior librarian, Hennepin County Library and former buyer and merchandise manager for B. Dalton Bookseller

"Judge Braud has a way of making the reader feel right there alongside him. —Vicki Bluedorn, court administrator, IL 14th Judicial Circuit "Before there was a Johnnie Cochran in Los Angeles, there was a Walter Braud in Rock Island, Illinois.” —Lewis Washington, ret. probation officer, Davenport, Iowa

“Being able to preside over a jury trial as a young judge and see Walter Braud work in a courtroom in front of that jury was an honor and a privilege I won’t forget. His life story is an inspiration for all to enjoy . . . he can sing too.” —Dana McReynolds, ret. circuit judge, IL 14th Judicial Circuit