Avon N. Williams, Jr. (December 22, 1921 – August 29, 1994) was a
Tennessee State Senator
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...
from 1972 to 1992.
Biography
Avon Nyanza Williams, Jr. was born in
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...
. He was a 1940 graduate of
Johnson C. Smith University
Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and accredited by the ...
, an
historically black university
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
located in
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
. He subsequently studied
law at the
Boston University School of Law
Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an eli ...
and was admitted to the
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and
bars in 1948. He practiced law in Knoxville from 1949 to 1953, then he moved to
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. In 1956, he married Joan Bontemps, the daughter of
Fisk University
Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...
Librarian and author,
Arna Bontemps
Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.
Early life
Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole family. His a ...
The couple had two children, Avon Williams III and Wendy Janette Williams.
Williams’ first cousin,
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...
, was the chief lawyer for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP. In Nashville, Williams was an active member of the
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
, long serving on its executive board, and active as a
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
attorney and a key figure in the Nashville-area
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. Through these efforts he met
Z. Alexander Looby
Zephaniah Alexander Looby (April 8, 1899 – March 24, 1972) was a lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee who was active in the civil rights movement. Born in the British West Indies, he immigrated to the United States at the age of 15; he earned degrees ...
, a fellow African American lawyer focused on civil rights. He joined Looby’s practice and together they helped defend African Americans participating in the movement.
Additionally, he was an active
alumn
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
us of the
Omega Psi Phi
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty advi ...
fraternity
A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, "wiktionary:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal ...
and served as a Reserve
lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
Judge Advocate General's Corps
The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as JAG or JAG Corps, is the military justice branch or specialty of the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. Officers serving in the JAG Corps are typically called judg ...
. He also was an instructor in "dental jurisprudence" in the dental department of Nashville's
Meharry Medical College
Meharry Medical College is a private historically black medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first me ...
, one of the few historically black medical schools. Williams was extremely active in school
desegregation, long serving as a plaintiff's counsel in Nashville's long-running (40 year plus) school desegregation lawsuit which resulted in
forced busing
Race-integration busing in the United States (also known simply as busing, Integrated busing or by its critics as forced busing) was the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts in ...
, making him extremely unpopular with elements of Nashville's white community and even the subject of death threats by
white supremacists.
In 1955, Williams and Looby filed suit against the Nashville school system. Kelley v. Board of Education of Nashville followed the
Brown v. Board of Education ruling and pushed for school desegregation. The case highlighted the busing controversy and lasted for thirty years.
In 1960, Williams other
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
lawyers represented the students arrested for the
Nashville sit-ins
The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a protest to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee. The sit-in campaign, coordinated by the Nashville S ...
, an event he discussed in relation to other civil rights issues in a 1964 interview with
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the liter ...
for the book
Who Speaks for the Negro?
''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' is a 1965 book of interviews by Robert Penn Warren conducted with Civil Rights Movement activists. The book was reissued by Yale University Press in 2014. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbi ...
.
In 1967 Williams represented the I-40 Steering Committee in their legal battle to stop Interstate 40 from dissecting North Nashville (Jefferson Street). The lawsuit was filed against Governor Ellington, Commissioner Speight, and Mayor Briley of Nashville.
In 1969 Williams was elected as a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
to the Tennessee State Senate from a newly configured district centering on the historically black section of North Nashville. He was the first African American senator elected in the state of Tennessee. From this base, he became highly influential in the Nashville black community and perhaps for a period its most high-profile leader. He was unrelenting in his pursuit of the liberal Democratic agenda of the era in general and the civil rights agenda in particular. As a high-profile African American legislator, he was, perhaps even more than most of his peers, a lightning rod for both criticism and praise, depending upon the observer's point of view.
In the 1970s Williams won a significant legal victory that allowed the merging of the University of Tennessee-Nashville with the historically black Tennessee State University (TSU). This expedited the process of integration in the state’s system of higher education.
In the late 1980s Williams began to be debilitated by the progressive effects of
ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...
("
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
's disease") and began to require the services of a chauffeur/attendant. Speculation was rife that he would not seek another Senate term in 1988; however he did so and was easily re-elected. However, this was to prove to be his final term, as he came to realize that he was no longer capable of the physical rigors that Senate service occasionally entailed and did not seek another term in 1992. He died shortly thereafter, in 1994. In honor of his unfailing devotion to the Civil Rights cause, the downtown campus of
Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...
(formerly the
University of Tennessee at Nashville
The University of Tennessee at Nashville was a branch campus of the UT system which existed from 1968 to 1979.
History
The branch grew out of an adult education extension program which the University had operated in Nashville since 1947, and UTN ...
) has been named for him.
Williams' so
Avon N. Williams III was an attorney like his father, but unlike him a
Republican. Avon Williams III died suddenly on July 9, 2005.
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Avon N.
1921 births
1993 deaths
African-American state legislators in Tennessee
Johnson C. Smith University alumni
Boston University School of Law alumni
Tennessee state senators
20th-century American politicians
20th-century African-American politicians