In the turbulent 1960s, Georgia schoolteacher James Williams became the National Education Association’s first regional director for the Southeast. Originally charged with helping to mediate collective bargaining issues in the region, Williams soon became the NEA’s key liaison with the champions of the Civil Rights Movement, including its foremost leader, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s death, Williams will appear at Loyola College in Maryland on Thursday, April 3 to discuss his relationship with Dr. King and his own involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in the 4th Floor Program Room of the College’s Andrew White Student Center. 

Williams first met Dr. King in an official capacity, as he worked to set up meetings between the civil rights leader and national education officials. Soon, he found himself personally entrenched in the civil rights battle, attending Dr. King’s church, participating in sit-ins and joining the famed march from Selma to Montgomery. His address will focus on his experiences working with Dr. King and the tremendous transformation in American society’s approach to race he has witnessed in the 40 years since Dr. King’s death.

Williams earned his undergraduate degree from what is now Lyon University in Arkansas, and later earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Auburn University in Alabama. After leaving the National Educational Association, he became the executive director of Georgia’s first integrated teachers’ association. From there, he moved to Washington, D.C. as the founding director of the National Education Association’s Health Information Network, and later to Baltimore to assume the leadership of Moveable Feast, a non-profit organization that delivers meals and groceries at no cost to people and families living with HIV/AIDS and other challenging medical circumstances. Today, he continues to work as a non-profit consultant, and is currently the interim executive director of the Senior Network of North Baltimore.

This event is sponsored by the College’s Faith & Business program, Center for Community Service and Justice, Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education and Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity.