Fred E. "Dixie" Walker (September 24, 1910 – May 17, 1982) was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout and minor league manager.

[2] Walker's popularity with the Ebbets Field fans in the 1940s brought him the nickname "the People's Cherce" (so-called, and spelled, because "Choice" in the "Brooklynese" of the mid-20th century frequently was pronounced that way).

After stints with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, Walker blossomed into a star with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he played from 1939 to 1947.

Additionally, Walker was the 1945 National League runs batted in champion, with his total of 124 topping Boston Braves outfielder Tommy Holmes, with 117.

The post was created to stave off the formation of a players' union in the wake of the short-lived American Baseball Guild movement earlier that year.

The Milwaukee Braves made Walker a scout in 1960, and he worked in this position until 1963, when he joined the team's coaching staff for three years.

[7] From the MLB Network special Jackie Robinson: ”A very popular player, a charming fellow, [Dixie Walker] prepared a petition [for Dodgers manager Leo Durocher] saying, ‘If you promote a black man [Robinson], we will not play.’ Branch Rickey [the Dodgers' president and general manager] contacted Durocher and said, ‘Stomp this fire out right now because we can’t let it spread.’" Durocher called a meeting of the players and said, "I don't care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a fuckin' zebra...I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays.

[7] In his 2002 book, The Era, 1947–1957, author Roger Kahn wrote that Walker admitted to starting the Dodgers' player petition in 1947, in which the signatories opposed the integration of baseball.

Although the St. Louis Cardinals reportedly were in favor of the idea, the quick intervention of their owner, Sam Breadon, and National League president Ford Frick, immediately reported by Stanley Woodward in the New York Herald Tribune, destroyed the strike movement.