Hosea Williams
Encyclopedia
Hosea Lorenzo Williams was a United States civil rights leader
, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist
, scientist
and politician
. Though deeply involved and committed to the struggle for racial equality before they met, Williams may be best known as the firebranded but trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize
winner Martin Luther King, Jr.
's inner-circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), King depended on Williams' keen ability to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in the myriad of protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice
. While serving as his Chief Field Lieutenant, King alternately referred to Williams as his "bull in a china closet" and his "Castro
".
Inspired by personal experience with and his vow to continue King's work for the poor, Williams may be equally well known as the founding president of one of the largest social services organizations for the poor and hungry on holidays in North America
, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. His famous motto was "Unbought and Unbossed" (which was also the motto of former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
).
, a small city in the far southwest corner of the state in Decatur County
. Both of his parents were teenagers committed to a trade institute for the blind in Macon
. Due to fear of her parent's response to her becoming an unwed mother, she 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. His mother died during childbirth when he was ten years old. He was raised by his mother's parents, Lelar 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 George S. Patton, Jr.. 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
as a research scientist. Williams 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.
earning a Purple Heart
, upon his return home from the war, Williams was savagely beaten by a group of angry whites at a bus station for drinking from a water fountain marked for "Whites Only". They had beaten him so badly, they thought he was dead. They called the black funeral home in the area to pick up the body. In route to the funeral home, the hearse driver noticed Williams had a faint pulse and was barely breathing, but was still alive. Since there were no hospitals in the area servicing blacks, even in the case of a medical emergency, the detour to the nearest veterans hospital would be well over a hundred miles away. Williams spent more than a month hospitalized recuperating from injuries sustained in the attack.
Of the attack, Williams was quoted as saying, "I was deemed 100% disabled by the military and required a cane to walk. My wounds had earned me a Purple Heart. The war had just ended and I was still in my uniform for god's sake! But on my way home, to the brink of death, they beat me like a common dog. The very same people whose freedoms and liberties I had fought and suffered to secure in the horrors of war.....they beat me like a dog......merely because I wanted a drink of water." He went on to say, "I had watched my best buddies tortured, murdered, and bodies blown to pieces. The French
battlefields had literally been stained with my blood and fertilized with the rot of my loins. So at that moment, I truly felt as if I had fought on the wrong side. Then, and not until then, did I realize why God, time after time, had taken me to death's door, then spared my life........to be a General
in the war for human rights and personal dignity."
Over the course of his 40 plus years as a civil rights activist, he was arrested more than 125 times fighting to liberate the oppressed.
He first joined the NAACP, but later became a leader in the SCLC
along with Martin Luther King, Jr.
, Ralph Abernathy
, 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
. 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 severely. 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, Georgia
area by black workers who had first been hired because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
.
In 1974, he organized the International Wrestling League (IWL), based in Atlanta, with Thunderbolt Patterson serving as president. The promotion ran three cards before folding.
In politics
, he was elected and served on the Atlanta City Council
, Georgia General Assembly
, and the Dekalb County Commission. He was one of few Georgia elected officials to ever be elected to serve on the city, county, as well as state-level of government. He was also one of few, if not only, Georgia elected official to ever win an election while incarcerated. Not only did Williams win the election, but his margin of victory was characterized as a landslide. 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 internationally-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 assault
ed 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.
widely known in Atlanta for providing hot meal
s, 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. Among many other entrepreneural endeavors, he also founded Hosea Williams Bail Bonds, Inc.,a bail bond agency located in Dekalb County, Georgia
providing bail for inmates throughout the metro-Atlanta area. Williams' son, Torrey Williams, serves as president
and his daughter, Jaunita Collier, as a vice president
.
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.
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.
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
, scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. Though deeply involved and committed to the struggle for racial equality before they met, Williams may be best known as the firebranded but trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
winner Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's inner-circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC), King depended on Williams' keen ability to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in the myriad of protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice
Social injustice
Social injustice is a concept relating to the claimed unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens and other incidental inequalities...
. While serving as his Chief Field Lieutenant, King alternately referred to Williams as his "bull in a china closet" and his "Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
".
Inspired by personal experience with and his vow to continue King's work for the poor, Williams may be equally well known as the founding president of one of the largest social services organizations for the poor and hungry on holidays in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. His famous motto was "Unbought and Unbossed" (which was also the motto of former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. She was a Congresswoman, representing New York's 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to Congress...
).
Background
Williams was born in Attapulgus, GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, a small city in the far southwest corner of the state in Decatur County
Decatur County, Georgia
Decatur County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 28,240. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 28,544. The county seat is Bainbridge.-History:...
. Both of his parents were teenagers committed to a trade institute for the blind in Macon
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
. Due to fear of her parent's response to her becoming an unwed mother, she 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. His mother died during childbirth when he was ten years old. He was raised by his mother's parents, Lelar and Turner Williams. He left home by age 14.
Williams served with the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in an all-African-American unit under General George S. Patton, Jr.. He advanced to the rank of Staff Sergeant. Williams was the only survivor of a Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
bombing, which left him in a hospital in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for more than a year and earned him a Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
.
After the war, he earned a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
diploma at age 23, then a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
and a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
(both in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
) from Atlanta's Morris Brown College
Morris Brown College
Morris Brown College is a private, coed, liberal arts college located in the Vine City community of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is a historically black college affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church...
and Atlanta University (present day Clark Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was formed in 1988 with the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University...
). Williams was a member of Phi Beta Sigma
Phi Beta Sigma
Phi Beta Sigma is a predominantly African-American fraternity which was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students. The founders A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I...
fraternity.
In the early 1950s Williams married Juanita Terry and worked for the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
as a research scientist. Williams had four sons: Hosea L. Williams II, Andre Williams, Torrey Williams, and Hyron Williams and four daughters: Barbara Emerson, Elizabeth Omilami
Elizabeth Omilami
Elisabeth Williams-Omilami is an African-American human rights activist and an actress, a writer and a Pastor while being the voice of the less fortunate at Hosea Feed the Hungry.-Life and career:...
, Yolanda Favors, and Jaunita Collier. Williams was preceded in death by his wife and son Hosea II.
Civil Rights
Though he courageously fought for his country in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
earning a Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
, upon his return home from the war, Williams was savagely beaten by a group of angry whites at a bus station for drinking from a water fountain marked for "Whites Only". They had beaten him so badly, they thought he was dead. They called the black funeral home in the area to pick up the body. In route to the funeral home, the hearse driver noticed Williams had a faint pulse and was barely breathing, but was still alive. Since there were no hospitals in the area servicing blacks, even in the case of a medical emergency, the detour to the nearest veterans hospital would be well over a hundred miles away. Williams spent more than a month hospitalized recuperating from injuries sustained in the attack.
Of the attack, Williams was quoted as saying, "I was deemed 100% disabled by the military and required a cane to walk. My wounds had earned me a Purple Heart. The war had just ended and I was still in my uniform for god's sake! But on my way home, to the brink of death, they beat me like a common dog. The very same people whose freedoms and liberties I had fought and suffered to secure in the horrors of war.....they beat me like a dog......merely because I wanted a drink of water." He went on to say, "I had watched my best buddies tortured, murdered, and bodies blown to pieces. The French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
battlefields had literally been stained with my blood and fertilized with the rot of my loins. So at that moment, I truly felt as if I had fought on the wrong side. Then, and not until then, did I realize why God, time after time, had taken me to death's door, then spared my life........to be a General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
in the war for human rights and personal dignity."
Over the course of his 40 plus years as a civil rights activist, he was arrested more than 125 times fighting to liberate the oppressed.
He first joined the NAACP, but later became a leader in the SCLC
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
along with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, Ralph Abernathy
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...
, James Bevel
James Bevel
James L. Bevel was an American minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference initiated, strategized, directed, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era:...
, Joseph Lowery
Joseph Lowery
Joseph Echols Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement. He later became the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his immediate successor, Rev. Dr...
, and Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...
among many others. He played an important role in the demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
that some claim led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. While organizing during the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement he also lead the first attempt at a 1965 march
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
from Selma
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
to Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, and was tear gassed and beaten severely. The Selma demonstrations and this "Bloody Sunday
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
" 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, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
area by black workers who had first been hired because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
.
In 1974, he organized the International Wrestling League (IWL), based in Atlanta, with Thunderbolt Patterson serving as president. The promotion ran three cards before folding.
In politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, he was elected and served on the Atlanta City Council
Atlanta City Council
Atlanta City Council is the main municipal legislative body for the city of Atlanta, Georgia. It consists of 15 members elected from districts within the city. The Atlanta City Government is divided into three bodies: the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The Atlanta City Council serves...
, Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
, and the Dekalb County Commission. He was one of few Georgia elected officials to ever be elected to serve on the city, county, as well as state-level of government. He was also one of few, if not only, Georgia elected official to ever win an election while incarcerated. Not only did Williams win the election, but his margin of victory was characterized as a landslide. 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
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...
and Charles Evers
Charles Evers
James Charles Evers is a prominent American civil rights advocate. The older brother of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, Charles Evers is a leading civil rights spokesman within the Republican Party in his native Mississippi. In 1969 he became the first African American since the...
and endorsing Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
. By 1984, however, he had soured on Reagan's policies, and returned to the Democrats.
In 1987 he led another internationally-covered march, this one consisting of 75 people in Forsyth County, Georgia
Forsyth County, Georgia
Forsyth County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The county seat is Cumming, Georgia. Forsyth County is a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, which at the time (before becoming a major exurb
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...
of northern metro Atlanta
Metro Atlanta
The Atlanta metropolitan area or metro Atlanta, officially designated by the US Census Bureau as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States...
) had no non-white residents. He and the others were assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
ed with stones
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
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
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
and sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
department officers, plus national media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. 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
Maynard Jackson
Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. was an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the first African American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He served three terms, two consecutive terms from 1974 until 1982 and a third term from 1990 to 1994...
for mayor of Atlanta.
Later life
He founded Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, a non-profit foundationFoundation (charity)
A foundation is a legal categorization of nonprofit organizations that will typically either donate funds and support to other organizations, or provide the source of funding for its own charitable purposes....
widely known in Atlanta for providing hot meal
Meal
A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food.Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day...
s, haircuts, clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
, and other free services for the needy on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
, Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Easter Sunday each year. Williams' daughter Elizabeth Omilami
Elizabeth Omilami
Elisabeth Williams-Omilami is an African-American human rights activist and an actress, a writer and a Pastor while being the voice of the less fortunate at Hosea Feed the Hungry.-Life and career:...
serves as head of the foundation. Among many other entrepreneural endeavors, he also founded Hosea Williams Bail Bonds, Inc.,a bail bond agency located in Dekalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...
providing bail for inmates throughout the metro-Atlanta area. Williams' son, Torrey Williams, serves as president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and his daughter, Jaunita Collier, as a vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
.
Both his wife and his son, Hosea Williams II, died prior to his own death.
Williams died at Piedmont Hospital
Piedmont Hospital
Piedmont Hospital is a major hospital at 2002 Peachtree Road at Collier Road in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia.-Washington Street location:...
in Atlanta, after a three-year battle with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
. 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 Hosea L Williams Drive shortly before Williams died. Hosea Williams Drive runs by the site of his former home in the East LakeEast Lake (Atlanta)
East Lake is a neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, situated in DeKalb County.It is the eastern-most of the 238 neighborhoods in the City of Atlanta . East Lake is bordered by:* Knox St./Pharr Rd. and the Decatur neighborhood of Oakhurst to the north;* 1st St...
neighborhood at the intersection of Hosea Williams Drive and East Lake Drive.
Hosea Williams Drive is in the DeKalb County
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...
portion of Atlanta and originates at Moreland Avenue, running east-west through the communities of Edgewood
Edgewood (Atlanta)
Edgewood is a neighborhood located on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, located approximately three miles east of downtown Atlanta.-History:...
, Kirkwood
Kirkwood (Atlanta)
Kirkwood is a neighborhood in eastern Atlanta, Georgia that was designed by architect, Will Saunders. It is situated entirely in DeKalb County and near Lake Claire, East Lake, and Oakhurst. Kirkwood is bound on the north by DeKalb Avenue and on the south by Memorial Drive...
, 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.
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