Civil Rights Leader Hosea Williams Dies At 74

Jet, Dec 4, 2000

Hosea Williams, a top lieutenant to civil fights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who continued the struggle for more than three decades after King's death, recently died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 74.

Williams was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago and had a cancerous kidney removed last year. He died at Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital where he was being treated for an infection.

The fearless Williams never lost the combative spirit that boosted him from the obscurity of a government agricultural chemist's job in Savannah to the front of the civil fights fray of the 1960s.

When he was jailed, which happened more than 125 times, he often waved it off as "just another attempt to silence Hosea Williams" or to stop his attacks on "the downtown power structure."

Williams was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) director of field operations when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968; he was with King the day King was shot in Memphis.

As the chief organizer of King's marches and demonstrations, Williams helped to lead the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, where they were protesting the denial of voting rights to Blacks. Much blood was shed when all-White troopers and sheriffs deputies used tear gas, nightsticks and whips to break up the march.

The event was depicted last year in the ABC-TV movie Selma, Lord, Selma. Williams' daughter, Elisabeth Williams-Omilami, appeared in the movie as did King's daughter, Yolanda King.

Williams walked with President Clinton earlier this year to mark the 35th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday."

Thirteen years earlier, he led a march into virtually all-White Forsyth County north of Atlanta and was greeted by Ku Klux Klan members and sympathizers throwing bottles and rocks.

In 1970, Williams started Hosea's Feed the Hungry and Homeless campaign, which serves 35,000 meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The charity dinners now include a job fair and health screenings by volunteer doctors and dentists.

Williams eventually left the SCLC in 1979.

A native of Attapulgus, GA, Williams made history as the first Black chemist hired by the federal government south of the Mason-Dixon line when he was hired by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. He later taught agricultural chemistry before he went on leave to join the movement.

Williams held a bachelor's degree from Morris Brown College and a master's degree from Atlanta University.

In later years he entered politics and served as a state representative, Atlanta city councilman and DeKalb County commissioner before he retired in 1994.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell issued a statement upon learning of Williams' death: "Rev. Hosea Williams was a true American hero, freedom fighter, and dedicated public servant whom I admired tremendously. `Un-bossed and unbought,' Rev. Williams dedicated his life to securing the civil and human rights of his people. He heard and accepted his calling and set out upon his life's work in the struggle."

Williams was preceded in death this year by his wife, Juanita Williams, and by a son, Hosea Williams II, in 1998.

In addition to Williams-Omilami, he is survived by three daughters and two sons.