Every day this month, the Center for Black Educator Development, in partnership with Phillys7thWard.org and Citizen Ed, will highlight a Black Educator Hall of Famer. But, don’t forget, e’ry month is Black History Month…February is just the Blackest.
Today, our featured Black Educator is William T.B. Williams.
Dr. William Taylor Burwell Williams was born on July 3, 1869 in Stone Bridge, Clark County, Virginia. He was the son of Edmund and Louisa Johnson Williams. Dr. Williams graduated from Hampton Institute in 1888, Phillips Academy in 1893, and Harvard University in 1897. Williams also received his LL.D. from Morehouse College in 1923.
Williams served numerous organizations, educational and otherwise, to support Black students
Williams served numerous organizations, educational and otherwise, to support Black students. According to his obituary, Dr. Williams was a principal in Indianapolis Public Schools from 1897 to 1902, a field agent of the Hampton Institute and the Southern Education Board, and a member of the General Education Board. His associations also delved into fundraising, as a member of the John F. Slater fund and the Negro Rural School fund from 1930 until his transition in 1941.
Dr. Williams also participated in the Niagara Movement Conference, as shown via correspondence with W.E.B. DuBois. In addition, Dr. Williams was the 1934 recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, which was awarded yearly to the most outstanding African American.
Other recipients included James Weldon Johnson, Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Mary McLeod-Bethune.
He taught at Hampton Institute, where he was a member of the Southern Workman’s editorial staff—the academic journal of the university. Dr. Williams is most known for serving as dean of the college of Tuskegee Institute from 1927 to 1936 and as Vice President of the Institute since 1936. He was also a two-time president of the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (later renamed the American Teachers Association and merged with the NEA).
He was a member of U.S. Commissions on Education in Haiti and the Virgin Islands, and a member of the U.S. War Department Committee on Education and Special Training.
W T. B. Williams; a member of the Black Educator Hall of Fame.
For more information on William T. B. Williams, visit the following site.
