James B. Williams
May 28, 1919 – November 23, 2016
Williams, a native of Las Cruces, New Mexico, was born on May 28, 1919 to Clara Belle Williams and Jasper B. Williams and was educated in a segregated grade and high school.
As a military officer and physician, Dr. James B. Williams has spent his entire career in public service. Co-founding the Williams Medical Clinic in Chicago with his two brothers, Dr. Jasper F. Williams and Dr. Charles L. Williams, he was also part of a handful of dedicated young men who enlisted and became America’s first black airmen, known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
In 1942, with a pre-medicine background, Williams was drafted into the military and given a position with the medical corps at Camp Pickett, Virginia, and was chosen to attend Medical Administrative Officers Candidate School. Wanting to become a pilot, however, he asked to transfer to the Army Air Corps. He was subsequently appointed an aviation cadet and sent to Boca Raton Club, Florida, for basic training. From there, he went to Yale University for technical training, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps. As a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, Williams served as an Engineering Officer in the post war 99th Fighter Squadron.
As a Tuskegee Airman, Williams was among 61 members arrested in 1945 after they peacefully protested their inability to attend an officers’ club at Freeman Field, Indiana, because of their race. The African-American aviators, many who were military officers, were ordered by commanders at Freeman Field to sign an agreement acknowledging the officers’ club was to be segregated. But disobeying an order during World War II was considered an act of treason and the Tuskegee Airmen were threatened with the ultimate penalty, death.
His daughter Payton-Jones, in a column she wrote for the East Bay Times in 2014, said Williams explained his actions this way: “If I can’t go into the officers club, then I shouldn’t be an officer.”
“That was kind of his whole approach to fighting segregation,” Payton-Jones said. “It was so common-sensical. … He didn’t make out like he was a big hero, it was just that’s what he had to do.”
Although charges against Williams and other Tuskegee Airmen were dropped, the U.S. Air Force placed letters of reprimand in the files of every Tuskegee Airmen who was involved. But 50 years later, the Air Force exonerated them and removed the letters of reprimand from their files.
When Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, Williams was among several other Tuskegee Airmen who attended Obama’s swearing-in ceremony.
“That was really special,” said Payton-Jones, who attended Obama’s inauguration with her father. “All of those Tuskegee Airmen were so stoic. It was freezing that day. All of them were in their 90s and nobody complained.”
He earned his B.S. degree in chemistry from New Mexico State University after finishing his military service, and with dreams of becoming a physician, he earned his M.D. degree from Creighton University School of Medicine. There, he met his future wife, Willeen Brown. Williams continued his medical education and was accepted into Creighton’s surgical residency program, earning his M.S. degree in surgery in 1956. With his various medical experiences, he and his brothers established the Williams Clinic on Chicago’s South Side. At its peak, there were more than twenty-eight doctors practicing at the clinic. Williams also worked at Chicago’s St. Bernard’s Hospital in 1957 as its first African American physician, becoming the hospital’s chief of surgery from 1971 to 1972. Williams combined his dedication to progress and medical prowess by meeting with President John F. Kennedy in 1963, as a member of a National Medical Association delegation to advance an amendment to the Hill-Burton Act that would prevent discrimination in hospitals built with federal assistance. Williams also served as physician to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when the civil rights leader lived in Chicago.
Click here to purchase the book “Unlawful Orders: A Portrait of Dr. James B. Williams, Tuskegee Airman, Surgeon, and Activist”
Sources:
Chicago Sun Times
Las Cuses Sun News
