Hosea Williams: A Lifetime of Defiance and Protest

by Rolundus R. Rice, Andrew Young (Foreword by)

Overview

The first comprehensive study of one of America's most gifted civil rights activists and political mavericks

When civil rights leader Hosea Lorenzo Williams died in 2000, U.S. Congressman John Lewis said of him, "Hosea Williams must be looked upon as one of the founding fathers of the new America. Through his actions, he helped liberate all of us."

In this first comprehensive biography of Williams, Rolundus Rice demonstrates the truth in Lewis's words and argues that Williams's activism in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was of central importance to the success of the larger civil rights movement. Rice traces Williams's journey from a local activist in Georgia to a national leader and one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s chief lieutenants. He helped plan the Selma-to-Montgomery march and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Lewis across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday."

Williams played the role of enforcer in SCLC, always ready to deploy what he called his "arsenal of agitation." While his hard-charging tactics may have seemed out of step with the more diplomatic approach of other SCLC leaders, Rice suggests that it was precisely this contrast in styles that made the organization so successful. Rice also follows Williams's career after King's assassination, as Williams moved into local Atlanta politics. While his style made him loved by some and hated by others, readers will come to appreciate the central role that Williams played in the most successful nonviolent revolution in American history.

Andrew Young Jr., former SCLC executive director, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and mayor of Atlanta, provides a foreword.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643362588
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rolundus Rice holds a PhD in history from Auburn University. He currently serves as vice president of academic affairs at Rust College in Mississippi.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Foreword Ambassador Andrew Young ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

1 "Little Turner," World War II, and Atlanta 13

2 "The Defiant Head House Nigger" 45

3 Savannah's Rebellious "Negro Chieftain" 71

4 "King's Kamikaze": St. Augustine and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 91

5 Selma and the Voting Rights Act, 1965 113

6 SCOPE, SNCC, and Black Power, 1965-1966 142

7 Chicago, the Kentucky Derby, and the Poor Peoples Campaign 177

8 The Movement Continues, 1968-1974 215

9 Politics, Prosecution, and Persecution, 1975-1984 250

10 "I'm an Opportunist," 1985-2000 296

Hosea Williams's Family Tree 329

Notes 331

Bibliography 373

Index 379

What People are Saying About This

James Ralph

Hosea Williams offers a full, accessible, and clearly written account of was one of the most critical yet unknown figures in the modern civil rights movement. A welcome addition that offers a distinctive window onto the most important American social movement in the twentieth century.

Benjamin F. Chavis

Rice's biography of civil rights icon Hosea Williams reveals vividly the strategic effectiveness of militant agitation and nonviolent civil disobedience for the cause of freedom, justice and equality in America. I witnessed firsthand within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the courage and the precision of Hosea Williams's frontline leadership and activism which this biography illuminates.

Michael Eric Dyson Michael Eric Dyson

Hosea Williams is the definitive study of one of America's most gifted civil rights activists and political mavericks. Rice brilliantly traces the pioneering path of the talented movement strategist and protest provocateur—from his legendary association with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesse Jackson, to his transformative work for the poor, and his sublime agitation as a uniquely styled politician. Rice's pathbreaking book rightly establishes Hosea Williams as one of the most colorful and creative personalities to emerge in the pitched battle to make America a just nation.

Michael Eric Dyson

Hosea Williams is the definitive study of one of America's most gifted civil rights activists and political mavericks. Rice brilliantly traces the pioneering path of the talented movement strategist and protest provocateur—from his legendary association with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesse Jackson, to his transformative work for the poor, and his sublime agitation as a uniquely styled politician. Rice's pathbreaking book rightly establishes Hosea Williams as one of the most colorful and creative personalities to emerge in the pitched battle to make America a just nation.

Hasan Kwame Jeffries

The civil rights movement had an abundance of heroes and no shortage of villains. But the movement also had anti-heroes, prominent activists who lacked conventional heroic characteristics. As Rolundus Rice's deeply researched and wonderfully written biography of Hosea Williams makes clear, the movement's anti-heroes made seminal contributions to the struggle. In fact, by retrieving Williams from the margins of history, Rice demonstrates that the movement itself—its origins, evolution, and outcomes—cannot be fully understood without grappling with those movement leaders whose strategies and tactics defy easy categorization. Through Williams, Rice complicates civil rights leadership as well as the freedom struggle itself, fundamentally changing how we understand the most impactful social movement in American history.

Editorial Reviews

Detailed in its treatment of a figure central to the heroic era of the civil rights movement and helpful as a resource for understanding the first generation of Black officials elected to office after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Historians of the civil rights movement and, most especially, historians of Georgia broadly and Atlanta specifically will benefit from the first biography dedicated to Hosea Williams.

Journal of Southern History