Hosea
Williams, the son of blind African American parents, was born in Attapulgus,
Georgia, on 5th January, 1926. After the death of his mother, Williams
was raised by his grandparents. At the age of 13 he was nearly lynched
by a white mob after becoming friendly with a local white girl.
Williams worked as a cleaner, caretaker and farmworker before joining
the United States Army during the Second
World War. He went with the Third Army to Europe and was the only
survivor of a 13-man platoon hit by a shell in France. While being
taking to hospital the ambulance was also hit and once again he was
the only survivor. Williams remained in hospital for 13 months and
was permanently disabled and had to walk for the rest of his life
with a stick.
Soon after leaving hospital Williams was badly beaten by a group of
whites after drinking from the only water fountain in a segregated
bus station. He was so badly injured that doctors at the veterans
hospital where he was taken predicted he would die. This marked the
beginning of his involvement in the Civil
Rights movement and after leaving hospital he joined the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).
Before the war Williams received only a brief formal education but
the GI Bill of Rights allowed him to return to high school in 1947.
He eventually studied at Morris Brown College and Atlanta University,
before finding employment as a research chemist at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture.
Williams joined the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) and in 1963 was recruited to the staff of Martin
Luther King. He was active in the Freedom
Summer voting registration campaign and was arrested on 124 occasions.
King once described Williams as "My wild man, my Castro".
With John Lewis, Williams led the Selma
to Montgomery protest march on 7th March, 1965, that was attacked
by mounted police. The sight of state troopers using nightsticks and
tear gas was filmed by television cameras and the event became known
as Bloody Sunday. Williams was with Martin
Luther King when he was assassinated on 4th April, 1968.
Williams was elected to Georgia General Council in 1974 and controversially
endorsed Ronald Reagan for president in
1980. After becoming a member of the Atlanta City Council, he led
a march in Forsyth County, which resulted in a violent confrontation
with the Ku Klux Klan in 1987. Two years
later, Williams failed in his bid to be elected mayor of Atlanta.
Hosea Williams died in Atlanta on 16th November, 2000.
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