On June 12, 1895, Walker's wife Arabella died of cancer at 32 years old; he remarried three years later to Ednah Mason, another former Oberlin student. The same year, Walker was found guilty of mail robbery and was sentenced to one year in prison which he served in Miami County and Jefferson County Jail. After his release during the turn of the century, Walker jointly owned the Union Hotel in Steubenville with Weldy, and managed the Opera House, a movie theater in nearby Cadiz. As host to opera, live drama, vaudeville, and minstrel shows at the Opera House, Walker became a respected businessman and patented inventions that improved film reels when nickelodeons were popularized. In 1902, the brothers explored ideas of Black nationalism as editors for "The Equator", although no copies exist today as evidence. Walker expanded upon his works about race theory in "The Equator" by publishing the book "Our Home Colony" (1908). Regarded as “the most learned book a professional athlete ever wrote”, "Our Home Colony" shared Walker's thesis on the victimization of the black race and a proposal for African-Americans to emigrate back to Africa.