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ELBERT A WALTON JR Rep. Elbert A Walton Jr. Member of the Missouri House of Representatives In office January 1, 1979 – December 31, 1993 Constituency	District 80, and 61, St. Louis City, Missouri

Democratic Central Committee, St. Louis County, Missouri In office August, 1994 – August 2002 Constituency	Halls Ferry Township, St Louis County, Missouri

Municipal Judge – City of St Louis In Office 1976-1978

Berkeley City Attorney In office 1995–1997

Northeast Fire Protection District Attorney In office 2007-2009

Uplands Park Village Attorney In office 2014-2015

Personal details Born	Elbert A Walton Jr February, 1942 St. Louis, Missouri

Nationality	African-American

Political party	Democratic

Former spouses Sandra B Phillips (1964-1978) Juanita A Head (1979-1987, 1993-2011) Children	Rochelle, Rhonda, Angela, Elbert III, & Johnathan Residence	St Louis County, MO

Alma mater St Louis University (JD – 1974) Washington University (MBA – 1970) University of Missouri at St. Louis (BA – 1968) Harris-Stowe State University (AA – 1963) Occupation	Attorney - Retired

Committees Judiciary Civil & Criminal Justice Elections Appropriations – General Administration Chairman, Committee on Fiscal Affairs Vice-Chairman, Joint Committee on Fiscal Affairs Religion	Atheist

Military service Allegiance	United States Service/branch	United States Navy Reserve Years of service	1959-1961 Rank	Seaman - Storekeeper Discharge	Received an Honorable discharge

Elbert A Walton Jr. (born February 21, 1942), is an American politician with the Democratic Party. He was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives for fourteen years, and has been the Chairperson of a major political organization, the Unified Democratic Township Organization, LLC, (formerly, Unity PAC), operating in the Northeastern area of St Louis, County, Missouri, for some twenty-five years. Walton was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He served in the United States Navy Reserve from 1959 to 1961, and left with an honorable discharge. He received education in business administration, with a specialization in accounting and finance, at Harris Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe State University), where he obtained an associate's degree (AA), and at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he received a bachelor’s degree (BA) in business administration-accounting. He received advance graduate degrees from Washington University, in St Louis, where he received a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), and finally at St Louis University, where he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree (JD), in law. While attending Harris-Stowe State College, Walton was a member of the Omicron Sigma Chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, where he served as Lampados Club President and Chapter President, ran Track & Cross Country, in which he lettered, was a member of the Student Council, and Freshman Class President. At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Walton was a member of the Association of Black Collegians and the Beta Alpha Psi Honorary Accounting Fraternity. While attending Washington University, Walton was active with the Association of Black Collegians, as its Vice-Chairman, a member of the Graduate Business Students Association, the Student Government Association, as his Class Representative, and worked as a Student Tutor to undergraduate students in accounting. At St. Louis University Walton was a member of the Black American Law Students Association, the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, North St. Louis Young Democratic Club, where he served as its President, the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity, the Society for International Law, the Young Democratic Clubs of Missouri, where he served as State Recording Secretary & General Counsel. Among Walton’s most coveted Honors and Awards are his elections as Citizen of the Year, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Man of the Year, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Outstanding Achievement, National Association of Black Accountants, and Outstanding Service, National Association of Black Accountants. Walton was a National Vice President of the National Association of Black Accountants and a member of its National Board of Directors. Walton is a lifetime member of his Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, and served two elected terms as its Grand Counselor (General Counsel) and on its Supreme Council (International Board of Directors). Walton is currently single; however, he was formerly married, first to Sandra B Phillips, with whom he had three daughters, Rochelle, Rhonda and Angela. They divorced and he later married Juanita A Head (now deceased) with whom he had two sons, Elbert III and Johnathan. He currently resides in Moline Acres, a small city in St Louis County, Missouri.

Walton began his employment career in accounting and finance, having worked as the manager of the accounting department at Lambert –St Louis Municipal Airport, Comptroller of the Homer G Phillips Hospital in St Louis, and a financial analyst for Continental Oil Corporation in New York City. Walton also taught accounting at the Florissant Valley Community College for one year. He was an Instructor of Accounting for three years at the University of Missouri-St Louis, and then taught Legal Environment of Business for four years after obtaining his law degree. He also served as an Associate Professor of Management at Alabama State University, in Montgomery, Alabama for one year. Walton practiced law privately between 1974 and 2017. He began his practice in association with Harold Whitfield. He and Whitfield expanded the practice to associations with Rita Montgomery, Frankie Freeman (a former longtime member of the US Civil Rights Commission), Donna White (a former Director of the Missouri Department of Labor), Charles Staples (a former Magistrate Court Judge) and Michael Calvin (a former Circuit Court Judge). Walton left the group in 1984 to practice solo until his retirement in 2017. Walton is now fully retired and very active in electoral politics having managed and consulted with over one hundred candidates for public and party offices and having successfully managed and consulted with some 80 candidates who were elected to public and democratic party offices. Walton’s ex-wife, Juanita, served on the St Louis City School Board for one term and for four, two-year, terms as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from districts located in the county of St Louis, Missouri. His daughter, Rochelle Walton Gray, followed his ex-wife into the Missouri House, and she too served for four terms as well. Both of them left the legislature due to Missouri’s term limit constitutional provision. Upon being term limited, Juanita retired from politics, moved out of state to Portland, Oregon, and is now deceased. On the other hand, his daughter, Rochelle, upon being term limited, ran for and defeated a sixteen year incumbent, Mike O’Mara, with 67% of the vote, for a seat on the St Louis County, Missouri, council. At the same time, Rochelle was elected to the Democratic Central Committee for St Louis County, and her husband, Alan J Gray, was elected to her seat as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. Also elected at this same time to the Missouri House of Representatives, from the 68th District, was another one of Walton’s sons-in-law, Jermond (Jay) Mosley, who is married to Walton’s youngest daughter, Angela. Angela was elected to the Missouri Senate in November, 2020. She and her husband Jay are making history as the first husband and wife team to serve in the Missouri General Assembly at the same time. Walton’s son, Johnathan, is a Major in the US Army National Guard Reserve. Walton was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives, from a district located within the city of St Louis, Missouri, in 1978, and re-elected in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990, leaving office, in 1993, after an unsuccessful run for Circuit Attorney for the City of St Louis. He later moved out of the city into St Louis County, where he was elected to the Democratic Central Committee in 1994 and re-elected in 2000. He represented the Halls Ferry Township, which was eliminated as a township upon re-apportionment of townships after the 2000 census. Walton has also held appointed public offices, including service as a Municipal Judge in the City of St Louis, City Attorney for the City of Berkeley, Missouri, District Attorney for the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District and City Attorney for the Village of Uplands Park. Walton has been Chairman of a political organization operating in the Northeast area of St. Louis County, Missouri, which has successfully elected over 80 persons to state, county, municipal and special district offices as well as political party positions. In addition, they have supported federal, state, and county wide office holders who are not members of their organization. Walton’s organization, whose members are black, found itself in opposition to the predominately white, North County Labor Council, over the past twenty-five years, which sought to retain influence over the election of office holders in the increasing majority black northeastern area of St Louis County. That rivalry came to a head with the election of Walton’s daughter, Rochelle Walton Gray, as a member of the St Louis County Council from the 4th district, when she defeated a sixteen year incumbent, and labor leader, Mike O’Mara, by a 4,000 vote margin or some 62% of the vote. In addition, eight of Walton’s allies won election to the democratic central committee of St Louis County, and two of his sons-in-law, won election to the Missouri House of Representatives, defeating labor backed candidates as well. Walton’s clash with labor unions began, while he was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, based on his support of black fire fighters’ opposition to legislation providing for collective bargaining for public employee unions. The black firefighters were opposed to paying dues to the predominantly white firefighters union, because the union had been opposed to affirmative action, and the courts had ruled in the union’s favor when black firefighters challenged the use of union dues to challenge affirmative action programs. This rivalry with labor unions continued with Walton’s decennial actions, including lawsuits, beginning after the 1980 census, and after the 1990 and 2000 censuses, under the voting rights act, seeking to increase the number of majority black districts in the Missouri legislature, as well as on the St Louis county council and the board of aldermen for the city of St Louis. His success after the 2000 census was carried over to the 2010 census, and the number of black elected officials in St Louis County are now at their maximum in proportion to the black/white population of St Louis County.

Walton’s major thrust in legislative office as well as in electoral politics has been to seek to empower black voters by increasing the number of black elected and appointed public and democratic party office holders. Walton and a Kansas City attorney, Larry Coleman, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Missouri non-partisan court plan, which spurred the appointment of numerous black judges, including the first black judge appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court. It was noteworthy, that the US District court judge took the case under submission for over a year until a black person had been appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court, and then cited that appointment as evidence that the non-partisan plan did not discriminate against black candidates for judicial offices. As a result of his efforts in reapportioning legislative districts, Walton authored a dissertation in 1994, entitled, “Separation from Power, A Study of African Americans Quest for Political Power in St Louis and Kansas City, Missouri.” Walton, who had a reputation as a great orator during debates on legislation being considered by the House, was known as a radical liberal during his tenure in the Missouri House of Representatives. He sponsored legislation to decriminalize drugs and to provide for conjugal visits for prisoners incarcerated in state prisons and county jails – neither of which received the support of a majority of the members of the House. He also sponsored legislation to repeal the non-partisan court plan, which he believed worked against the appointment of black judges. During his tenure in the legislature, Walton served on the Judiciary, Civil and Criminal Justice, Elections and Appropriations-General Administration committees – all of which were related to his occupation, outside of the legislature, as an attorney. He also chaired the Fiscal Affairs Committee and was Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

Walton’s efforts to empower black voters has been met with considerable opposition on the part of white power brokers and particularly labor union leaders. Walton operates under the Machiavellian political principle, “Its better to be feared, than to be loved.”

Personal life and family Walton was born in Homer G Phillips Hospital, a black public hospital, on February 21, 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri. He spent the first eleven years of his life in Carr Square Village, a public housing project, located within blocks of the downtown St Louis business district. The Village, as it is popularly known, consists of townhouses that had been built in 1942, the year of his birth. He and his two sisters, lived with his parents, Elbert and Luretta Walton, from 1942 until 1953, in the Village. He attended Carr and Henry Elementary Schools. In 1953, Walton’s father’s job with the US Army Material Command, relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, which caused his father to then relocate to Indianapolis with his job. His mother determined to withdraw from the marriage at the time, and thus his parents separated, and he, his sisters and mother moved out of the Village into his grandmother’s home, in the 3900 of Sullivan. He and his sisters joined his father in Indianapolis, the next year, in 1954, where they remained for one year, returning to St Louis, in 1955, at the end of the school year, as their father desired to live in St Louis. Upon graduation from Henry elementary school, in January, 1956, Walton attended Beaumont High School, which was newly integrated, in 1955, with the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown versus Board of Education, where Walton ran track and cross country. However, he transferred from Beaumont, during his senior year, due to being expelled for fighting, and graduated from the all-black Sumner High School. He attributed his expulsion to racism on the part of the white administration, which he noted had unfairly expelled numerous black students, including, Charles Shaw, whom later became a US District Court Judge. During his senior year in high school, Walton joined the US Navy Reserves, in which he served for two years as a Seaman-Storekeeper, receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1961. Also, during his senior year at Sumner High, Walton had an unpleasant experience with police harassment, being arrested for the alleged charge of illegal parking, which led him to determine to seek a career as an attorney. He spent the first year and a half after high school working odd jobs in order to save funds for college, and entered Harris Teachers College (now Harris-Stowe State University) in the Fall of 1961, from which he graduated from the Junior College Division in June, 1963, receiving an associate’s degree in business administration. While at Harris, Walton lettered in track and cross country, was elected President of the Freshman Class, and was initiated into the Omicron Sigma Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, where he served as President of the Lampados Pledge Club as well as Chapter Basileus (President). After graduating from Harris, Walton spent two years working, before returning to college to complete a bachelor’s degree. He also got married to his first wife, Sandra, in 1964, and started a family. During that two years, he worked as a bookkeeping machine operator for the US Internal Revenue Service, as a mail clerk for the US Postal Service, and in 1964, he was hired as an Accounting Clerk at Lambert-St Louis International Airport. Walton became the first black person hired by the city in an office position at the airport. In 1965, Walton returned to college at night, attending the newly opened campus of the University of Missouri at St Louis (UMSL). At UMSL, Walton was active in the Association of Black Collegians (ABC) and was elected to the Beta Alpha Psi Honorary Accounting Fraternity. While attending UMSL, Walton was promoted to the accounting manager at the airport. After about a year, or in 1967, he was hired as the comptroller at the Homer G Phillips Hospital, where he worked until his graduation from UMSL in 1968. In May, 1968, Walton received a bachelor’s degree in business administration-accounting from UMSL. Upon graduation from UMSL, he received a fellowship to attend Washington University in St Louis from which he graduated in May, 1970, with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA). While pursuing his master’s degree in business, Walton had a summer internship with Continental Oil Corporation, in New York City, where he worked as a financial analyst. He was a leader in the black student movement at Washington University, serving as Vice-Chairman of the Association of Black Collegians. The arrest of Walton, by campus police, while walking across campus to class, simply because he was “walking while black,” led to a two week sit-in by the black students. Black students were newly on Washington U’s campus in large numbers, spurred by the civil rights movement and riots of the late 60’s. After graduating from Washington U, in 1970, Walton was appointed an Instructor in Accounting at the Florissant Valley Community College, where he worked for a year, before being appointed as an Accounting Instructor, in 1971, at his alma mater, UMSL. In 1971, he was awarded a scholarship to attend St Louis University Law School, from which he graduated in May, 1974, with a juris doctor degree. At UMSL, Walton was elected to the Beta Alpha Psi Honorary Accounting Fraternity, and the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity for former boy scouts. In law school, Walton was a member of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity, and the Black American Law Students Association. Walton has been extremely active with his Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, including as an alumni, and was eventually elected to two terms to the National Office of Grand Counselor. He also served off and on continuously over thirty years as the Eighth District Counselor. In 2012, Walton received recognition for 50 years of service as a member of his Fraternity, in which he is a lifetime member.

Walton was married and divorced, thrice. His first marriage was to Sandra B Phillips with whom he had three daughters, Rochelle, Rhonda and Angela. He married his second wife, Juanita A Head twice, with whom he had two sons, Elbert III and Johnathan. Walton has twelve grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Walton’s former wife, Sandra, received bachelors and masters degrees in elementary education, and was an elementary school teacher before her retirement. His former wife, Juanita, who majored in business administration, and corporate communications, at the graduate level, joined Walton in his political life, being elected to the St Louis city school board, for one term, to the Missouri House of Representatives for four terms and to the St Louis County Democratic Central Committee for two terms. Juanita was also elected for one term as National Committeewoman of the Young Democrats of America, from the state of Missouri. Walton served a term as state Recording Secretary and General Counsel of the Missouri Young Democrats. Juanita served a National President of the National Conference of Women’s Legislators.

Introduction to Politics Walton did not grow up in politics. Neither his mother nor his father nor any of his family, neighbors or friends were involved in electoral politics. However, he had a keen interest in voting and immediately registered to vote upon reaching the age 21. He first became politically conscious as to the value of holding elected office to the economic life of black people while working for the city of St Louis, first at the airport and then at Homer G Phillips Hospital. He noted, while working at the airport, that many of the franchises of businesses at the airport were awarded to politicians, even the shoe shine stand was operated by a black precinct captain of a ward organization in the city of St Louis. He also saw politics at work at the predominantly black Homer Phillips Hospital which was slowly being dismantled by the city administration, and its patients and finances being transferred to the two major white universities in St Louis, St Louis U and Washington U’s, medical schools. Walton was hired at Homer Phillips to implement the accounting procedures for the federal governments newly passed Medicare and Medicaid programs. Walton noted that with those programs, it was now profitable for the private hospitals to serve low income patients. Moreover, he learned while interviewing black doctors at Homer G, that low income patients have all kinds of diseases, illnesses, and injuries that are ideal for medical schools to teach their students medicine, as well as to give their staff experience in medical research to improve their reputations in the medical field. He learned that Homer G had been an internationally famous teaching hospital for blacks in the medical field – not only teaching black doctors, but it had technical schools for training black students in almost every associated medical specialty needed in a hospital, such as medical records librarian, radiologist, inhalation therapist, and nursing. Walton concluded that politics caused the closing of the hospital by the white city administration and thus that black people needed to control the politics of their community if they were going to protect their interests.

Student Activist Walton was a college student in the 1960’s, during the civil rights struggle. He was eventually drawn into the movement as a graduate student at Washington University in St Louis. He served as Vice-Chairman of the Association of Black Collegians (ABC). The issue arose of campus police harassing black students as they walked around campus, asking them for ID. Washington U had a large influx of black students in 1968, in both graduate and undergraduate school, based on affirmative action on the part of the administration to increase its black enrollment. The campus police, not being use to seeing black students walking around campus, began to randomly stop black students and ask for their ID. This was brought up in one of the ABC meetings and it was determined that the issue should be addressed with the University Administration. However, before the meeting with university officials, Walton was walking across campus headed to the business school hall, when he was accosted by police who asked to see his ID. Walton refused to show it to them and they physically arrested him and took him to the campus security office. Somehow, they determined that Walton was a student and let him go. When the word got out to the other black students about the incident, the Chairman of the ABC, Rob Johnson, urged the students to stage a sit-in, not only in protest to what had happened to Walton, individually, but incidents of racism that the black students had experienced throughout the Washington U campus. The sit-in lasted for two weeks with the black students giving the university a list of twenty demands, that not only addressed issues being faced by the black students, but issues being faced by faculty and staff, and particularly, the black staff that populated the service jobs within the university, including janitors and cafeteria workers. The University met the student’s demands, and the sit-in ended. At the same time, the anti-Vietnam war movement was at a heightened state among white students at Washington U. Student activism led to political consciousness on Walton’s part. He came to the conclusion that he must engage in electoral politics if he was to advance the cause of black people. Walton determined that he would run for elected office once he finished law school. In the interim, he volunteered to work on the political campaigns of other black candidates who were seeking election to the St Louis School Board. These efforts were unsuccessful in that the candidates did not have sufficient funding to run a city wide campaign, in addition the city was predominantly white and racially polarized voting did not loom in their favor.

President of the Board of Aldermen Upon graduating from law school, in 1974, Walton determined to run for public office. One year earlier, in 1973, John Bass, a black high school principal, had been successfully elected as Comptroller of the city of St Louis, even though he had no education or experience in accounting. Thus, Walton, with his education and experience, thought he could be elected city wide as well. The city of St Louis as well as the predominantly black wards and legislative districts are heavily democratic. Thus, winning the primary election for a public office assures victory in the general election. The primary election for President of the St Louis Board of Aldermen was scheduled for March, 1975. There were three white lawyers, Paul Simon, a former state representative and 7th ward democratic committeeman, Milt Svetanics, a St Louis Alderman, and Dave Pentland, also a St Louis Alderman, vying for the position. Walton, thus thought that, as the only black candidate in the race, he could easily win the election, so he filed for and ran for the office. He fully expected the black political leadership in St Louis to endorse him and to back his candidacy for President of the Board. He was mistaken in that the black political leadership in St Louis supported one of the white candidates, Paul Simon, and Walton, having little campaign funds and no electoral campaigning experience, was unable to put together a winning campaign. Simon won.

Young Democrats Walton, who was then 33 years of age, became active in the Young Democrats of Missouri. Walton and the young people who had joined him in his effort to be elected to President of the Board of Aldermen formed a local chapter of the Missouri Young Democratic Organization. Walton was elected to the offices of Recording Secretary and General Counsel, respectively, of the state organization. His future wife, Juanita Head, was elected as the National Committeewoman to represent Missouri in the Young Democrats of America. Over the next year, Walton and his friends were active in the 1976 Presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter and the US Senate Campaign of Jerry Litton, who tragically was killed in an airplane crash on the date he received the Democratic nomination for the US Senate on August 3, 1976. Walton remained active with the Young Democrats until he turned 36, which was the maximum age to be a member of the Young Democrats.

State Representative – Missouri House of Representatives In 1976, Walton sought election to the office of State Representative from the 80th legislative district located in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The incumbent, JB “Jet” Banks, was giving up the seat in order to seek election to the Missouri Senate. At the same time, Walton also ran for a seat on the St Louis City Democratic Central Committee from the third ward. Walton’s opponent for State Representative was Robert Walker. His opponents for democratic committeeman were Wallace Cooperwood and Freeman Bosley, Sr. Walton lost both of those elections. Losing those elections to persons who were clearly less qualified than Walton left Walton bewildered as to how voters had voted for his opponents over him. He thus determined to do research on electoral politics in order to gain a better understanding of voter behavior and how to win elections. He found a book on the subject which he read, and determined to put the strategies outlined in the book to action, and to seek the office of State Representative again, in a rematch against Robert Walker, in 1978. This rematch was met with success, with Walton eking out a narrow victory by 11 votes. Ironically, Walton had a 400 vote lead over Walker among the voters who had voted at the polls; however, Walker had an unusually large number of absentee votes, which whittled that lead down to 11 votes. Ironically, Walker filed an election contest challenging the validity of absentee votes, which was unsuccessful. A recount of the votes increased Walton’s lead by one vote and he ended up winning the election by 12 votes. Walton went on to win re-election to the office of State Representative six more times. His district number was changed to 61, after the 1980 census, when the Missouri House was reapportioned in 1981, to meet the one person, one vote mandate of the US Supreme Court During his fourteen year tenure in the Missouri House, Walton gained a reputation as a great orator during debate on legislation. Self characterized as a radical liberal, Walton sponsored bills to decriminalize controlled substances and to provide for conjugal visits in Missouri’s prison system, both of which failed. Being an attorney, Walton served on the Judiciary, Criminal Justice, Elections and Appropriations-General Administration Committee through which legislation affecting the judiciary passed. He also sponsored legislation to repeal the non-partisan plan for selection of Missouri’s judges in the major urban areas of the state, in which the bulk of the black residents resided, as well as on the appellate and supreme court. Walton felt that the selection process was unfair to black lawyers, noting that there had never been a black person appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court and that there had only been one black person to serve on the Missouri Court of Appeals, which had at the time no black person serving for over ten years. In addition, asserting that it was impractical for black people to run for and be elected to the city’s school board, city wide, Walton sponsored legislation to have the board reduced to seven members, who would then run for office in separate sub-districts. That legislation too failed. Walton’s legislative successes were primarily in the forms of amendments to bills in which he would tack on legislation he deemed important to his constituents. Walton was active in the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus as well as the National Black Caucus of Legislators. He served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Foundation through which the Black Caucus funded scholarships and internships for black students. In addition, Walton regularly attended the National Conference of Legislators annual conventions as well as numerous other special interest groups’ conferences on legislative initiatives.

Democratic Party Politics Walton was elected Democratic Committeeman from the Halls Ferry Township of St Louis County, Missouri in 1994 and re-elected in 2000. His township was eliminated during the reapportionment process after the 2000 census and thus he went out of office after the 2004 elections. However, recognizing the importance of party politics, and especially the fact that the party committee members nominate candidates for public office to fill vacancies in special elections, Walton has encouraged his allies to be elected to the St Louis County Democratic Central Committee which has resulted in the successful election of eight of Walton’s allies to that Committee. Walton’s membership on the committee enabled Hazel Erby to receive the Democratic nomination for the St Louis County Council for the First District, in 2003, after Charlie Dooley left the post to fill an unexpired term as St Louis County Executive upon the death of the then County Executive, Buzz Westfall.