Hosea Williams
Hosea L. Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 5, 1926 |
| Died | November 16, 2000 (aged 74) Atlanta, Georgia |
Hosea Lorenzo Williams (January 5, 1926 – November 16, 2000) was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, and later a politician. His famous motto was "Unbought and Unbossed" (which was also the motto of congresswoman Shirley Chisholm).
Background
Williams was born in Attapulgus, Georgia. Both of his parents were teenagers committed to a trade institute for the blind in Macon. His mother ran away from the institute upon learning of her pregnancy. At the age of 28, Williams stumbled upon his birth father, "Blind" Willie Wiggins, by accident in Florida.[1] His mother died while giving birth to her second child. He was raised by his mother's parents, Lela and Turner Williams. He left home by age 14.
Williams served with the United States Army during World War II in an all-African-American unit under General Patton. He advanced to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Williams was the only survivor of a Nazi bombing, which left him in a hospital in Europe for more than a year and earned him a Purple Heart.
After the war, he earned a high school diploma at age 23, then a bachelor's degree and a master's degree (both in chemistry) from Atlanta's Morris Brown College and Atlanta University (present day Clark Atlanta University). Williams was a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
In the early 1950s Williams married Juanita Terry and worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. Willaims had four sons: Hosea L. Williams II, Andre Williams, Torrey Williams, and Hyron Williams and four daughters: Barbara Emerson,Elizabeth Omilami, Yolanda Favors, and Jaunita Collier. Williams was preceded in death by his wife and son Hosea II.
Civil Rights
He ended up in a hospital for over a month after being seriously beaten for using a drinking fountain marked "whites only". He was arrested for other protests 124 times.
He first joined the NAACP, but later became a leader in the SCLC along with Martin Luther King, Jr., James Bevel, Joseph Lowery, and Andrew Young among many others. He played an important role in the demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida that some claim led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964[2]. While organizing during the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement he also lead the first attempt at a 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, and was tear gassed and beaten severly. The Selma demonstrations and this "Bloody Sunday" attempt led to the other great legislative accomplishment of the movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
After leaving SCLC, Williams played an active role in supporting strikes in the Atlanta area by black workers who had first been hired because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964[2].
In 1974, he organized the International Wrestling League (IWL), base in Atlanta, Georgia, with Thunderbolt Patterson serving as president. The promotion ran three cards before folding.
In politics, he served on the Atlanta City Council and in the Georgia General Assembly. In 1972 Williams was a candidate in the primaries for U.S. Senator from Georgia. In 1976 he supported former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter for president. He surprised many black civil rights figures in 1980 by joining Ralph Abernathy and Charles Evers and endorsing Ronald Reagan. By 1984, however, he had soured on Reagan's policies, and returned to the Democrats.
In 1987 he led another nationally-covered march, this one consisting of 75 people in Forsyth County, Georgia, which at the time (before becoming a major exurb of northern metro Atlanta) had no non-white residents. He and the others were assaulted with stones and other objects by the KKK and other white supremacists. Another march the following week brought 20,000 people and an enormous showing of police and sheriff department officers, plus national media. Forsyth County, rapidly integrated following Hosea's demonstration, due, in part, to the availability of reasonably priced housing, a rarity in metro Atlanta. Forsyth is no longer considered merely an exurb of Atlanta but is a rapidly growing suburb.
In 1989, he unsuccessfully ran against Maynard Jackson for mayor of Atlanta.
Later life
He founded Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, a non-profit foundation widely known in Atlanta for providing hot meals, haircuts, clothing, and other free services for the needy on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Easter Sunday each year. Williams' daughter Elizabeth Omilami serves as head of the foundation.
Both his wife and his son, Hosea Williams II, died prior to his own death.
Williams died at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, after a three-year battle with cancer. Services were held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where close friend Dr. Martin Luther King was once the pastor. He was buried at Lincoln Cemetery.
Hosea frequented "CHOPS," a fine dining restaurant where he was known for regular dining and drinking. The restaurant even had a special drink key for Hosea that properly charged him for an unusual beverage that was his own favorite concoction.
Hosea L Williams Drive
Boulevard Drive in the southeastern area of Atlanta was renamed as Hosea L Williams Drive shortly before Williams died. Hosea Williams Drive runs by the site of his former home in the East Lake neighborhood at the intersection of Hosea Williams Drive and East Lake Drive.
Hosea Williams Drive is in the DeKalb County portion of Atlanta and originates at Moreland Avenue, running east-west through the communities of Edgewood, Kirkwood, and East Lake. The street ends at Candler Road.
Hosea L. Williams Papers are housed at Auburn Avenue Research Library On African American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia. His daughter Elisabeth Omilami also maintains a traveling exhibit of valuable civil rights memorabilia.
References
- ^ Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperback, 1998, 124.
- ^ a b Civil Rights Act of 1964
External links
- Williams v. Forsyth County Defense League Federal-court complaint by Hosea Williams
- Hosea Williams, 74, Rights Crusader, Dies By DANIEL LEWIS, November 17, 2000
- New Georgia Encyclopedia: Hosea Williams (1926-2000) Biographical information
- Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless Official Site
- Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History
