Prized works of art adorn the off-white walls of Darren Walker’s elegant Park Avenue co-op, in New York City. Among them are pieces by the likes of Kehinde Wiley, who painted the official portrait of President Barack Obama. In the living room, photos of Walker with some of his famous friends, including George and Amal Clooney, rest on a credenza. And seated nearby on a tête-à-tête sofa, Walker is impeccably dressed in creased Ralph Lauren pants, a crisp shirt, and his trademark square glasses, which lend him an air of stylish studiousness.

Such trappings of wealth and status stand in stark contrast to the framed black and white picture Walker is showing me of the shotgun house in rural southeast Texas where he spent his early childhood. “Anyone who grew up in these houses knew it meant yo

See Full Page