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“A TRIBUTE TO HOSEA WILLIAMS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E302 on March 7, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
A TRIBUTE TO HOSEA WILLIAMS
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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.
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