Franklin H Williams, former President of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, an operating foundation concerned with the advancement of educational opportunities for American minorities and Africans, began his career as assistant to Thurgood Marshall, the Special Counsel to the NAACP. Successfully passing the New York bar examinations before graduation from Fordham University School of Law, he was appointed to the position upon receipt of his J.D. in 1945. Concentrating on military and criminal cases, he became the first NAACP staff assistant to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court where he successfully won reversals of death sentences of several black youths unjustly convicted for capital crimes. One case involving three Florida youths convicted on a charge of rape and tried in a highly emotional atmosphere was reported by Ted Poston, a noted black journalist, who earned the Heywood Broun Award for Journalism with his New York Post series depicting the tension and terror to which the attorneys were subjected.
After five years in the Association's National office, Williams was appointed NAACP Regional Secretary-Counsel responsible for legal, legislative, and membership concerns throughout nine Western states, Alaska, and Hawaii. His nine years in this post were marked by actions which soon established his territory at the forefront of the civil rights movement: a highly successful drive for employment, housing, and other civil rights legislation; the first successful appeal for a major school desegregation case; and the removal of legal restrictive covenants in California, among others.
In 1959, Williams was appointed Assistant Attorney General of the State of California where he established the first Constitutional Rights Section of any State Department of Justice in the country. As Chief of that Section he forced the Professional Golfe's Association to admit Blacks to membership?an action that effectively removed racial bars preventing black participation in PGA tournaments.
After John F. Kennedy's election, Williams was called to Washington to assist Sargent Shriver in organizing the U.S. Peace Corps. He and Shriver traveled around the world consulting with heads of state in 9 countries before volunteers were sent overseas. In the summer of 1961, as a member of the U.S. delegation to the UN Economic and Social Council meeting in Geneva, he successfully steered through ECOSOC a resolution calling for the establishment of an international version of the Peace Corps under U.N auspices. Williams served as Peace Corps Regional Director for Africa for the next three years, and then became the first Black to be appointed an Ambassador at the U.S. Mission to the UN. During his two years in this capacity, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Third U.N. Congress on Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, and headed numerous official delegations including the U.S. Delegation to the annual meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America, the 38th Session of the International Monetary Fund, and two sessions of the Governing Council of the Special Fund of the UN.
Williams resigned this post after Adlai Stevenson?s death to accept an appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana. Arriving in Ghana just 4 1/2 weeks before a coup d?etat, his assignment was made even more difficult by a five year history of bad relations between the U.S. and Ghana. His contributions as Ambassador were recognized by the State Department, which presented him the Distinguished Service Award, and he was honored by numerous Ghanaian tribes and communities.
Rejecting career status in the Foreign Service, Williams assumed the Directorship of a new Urban Center at Columbia University in 1968. The following two years were marked by innovative changes in personnel utilization and curriculum, and the publication of a major study, "The Uses of the University."
In 1970, he assumed the Presidency of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Under his direction, the staff expanded from 12 to approximately 50 in order to keep pace with a growing number of programs in the areas of the Fund's charter commitments.
Williams has received numerous honors, awards and degrees. He was the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and was one of two persons to be awarded the Certificate of Appreciation by the Foreign Affairs Executive Seminar. He was a former Director of the council on Foreign Relations and served on the Board of the N. Y. City Opera Company, Borden, Inc., Consolidated Edison, Chemical Bank, the URS Corporation, and was Chairman of the Boys Choir of Harlem. During the time that Admiral Elmo Zumwalt was Chief of Naval Operations, Williams served as his confidential consultant on personnel problems and in that capacity visited and counseled with Flag officers in every part of the world.
He served on numerous boards and committees including American Civil liberties Union, Dalton School, Fordham and Lincoln Universities, NY Committee on State-City Relations, National Democratic Party Policy Committee, the Sister Cities International Advisory council and the Foreign Policy Association. He was a member of the Century Association, the Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities, and a life member of the NAACP.
Williams was married to the former Shirley Broyard and has two sons, Frank, Jr. and Paul Anatole.
Mr. Williams served for many years as a consultant to the government of Bermuda on race relations and from 1978 to 1984 was a regular commentator for the Group W radio stations. |
