[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A TRIBUTE TO HOSEA WILLIAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2001

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me 
in praising the work and life of Hosea Williams as a civil rights 
leader. For the past 40 years, he has worked with civil rights issues, 
helping to make a change for black people in America.
  Mr. Williams came from a difficult past. At age 13 he was forced to 
leave his community to escape a lynching mob that wanted to punish him 
for socializing with a white girl. When the United States entered World 
War II, he enlisted in the army and became a staff sergeant in an all-
black unit of Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army, working as a weapons 
carrier. He suffered an injury during an attack and had to spend a year 
in a British hospital.
  Mr. Williams returned to the United States where he finished high 
school at 23. He proceeded to earn his bachelor's degree from Morris 
Brown College in Georgia, with a major in Chemistry; and then received 
his master's degree from Atlanta University. He then became the first 
black research chemist hired by the federal government below the Mason-
Dixon line.
  Dissatisfied with the discrimination faced by black people in his 
community Mr. Williams began giving speeches in a downtown park on his 
lunch break. He was eventually arrested and jailed. When he was 
released he took a year leave from the United States Department of 
Agriculture to do civil rights work and never went back.
  The latter portion of Mr. Williams's life was spent fighting for 
civil rights. He worked as a field general for the Dr. Rev. Martin 
Luther King Jr. in the civil rights battles of the 1960's. Before 
joining with Dr. King he worked with National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People and helped to run the Southern Christian 
Leadership Council's actions in St. Augustine.
  Mr. Williams made sure not only to work with the issues abroad but 
also to work with his community. Serving on the Atlanta City Council 
and later as the De Kalb County commissioner he worked to improve the 
conditions at companies and help the poor.
  Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the late Hosea 
Williams for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the poor and 
disadvantaged and for his extraordinary contributions to civil rights.

                          ____________________