Freddye Harper Williams (January 9, 1917 – 2001) was an American newspaper columnist, management analyst, and state legislator in Oklahoma. She served five terms in the

Oklahoma House of Representatives The Oklahoma House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Its members introduce and vote on bills and resolutions, provide legislative oversight for state agencies, and help to craft the state's b ...

. She was a Democrat. She represented the 99th district. Fresdye Harper was born in

Bay Springs, Mississippi Bay Springs is a city in and the western county seat of Jasper County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,786 at the 2010 census, down from 2,097 at the 2000 census. State highways 15 and 18 intersect at the city. It is part of th ...

to Frederick G. Harper and Mittie Jo Harper. Her family moved to

Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff is the eleventh-largest city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combin ...

and then Oklahoma City when she was a child. She graduated as the valedictorian from Douglass High School. She married Calvin Williams. They had two sons and a daughter. She began her career as a newspaper columnist for the '' Black Dispatch'' and then worked for

Tinker Air Force Base Tinker Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force base, with tenant U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense missions, located in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, surrounded by Del City, Oklahoma City, and Midwest City. The base, origina ...

for some 30 years. She served on Oklahoma City's Board of Education from 1975 to 1980 and then served five terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives until 1990. She was also involved in numerous civic organizations. At one point she was fired from her Tinker Air Force base job because of her work at the ''Black Dispatch'' newspaper and its owner Roscoe Dunjee who was associated with Communist organizations. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Afro-American Hall of Fame in 1985. The National Collegiate Honors Council awards a Freddye T. Davy Student Scholarship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Freedye Harper 1917 births 2001 deaths People from Bay Springs, Mississippi Democratic Party members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives School board members in Oklahoma Women state legislators in Oklahoma African-American women journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists American columnists 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century American women politicians African-American state legislators in Oklahoma 20th-century members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives

See also

References