https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/e-faye-williams-39
E. Faye Williams
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Information about E. Faye Williams
Profession
Category:
CivicMakers
Occupation(s):
Civic Leader
Favorites
Favorite Color:
Blue
Favorite Food:
Turkey Burgers
Favorite Time of Year:
Summer
Favorite Vacation Spot:
Africa, Caribbean
Favorite Quote:
When There Is A Will, There Is A Way.
Birthplace
Born:
12/20/1941
Birth Location:
Melrose, Louisiana
See how E. Faye Williams is related to other HistoryMakers
Biography
Entrepreneur and civic leader E. Faye Williams is an accomplished attorney, businesswoman and teacher. Born in 1941, Williams has studied at several universities, and holds several advanced degrees. She earned her law degree from Howard University, and has worked as a counsel to Congress and a professor of international law at the Southern University Law Center. Additionally, she holds both a master’s degree and a doctorate in public administration. She became the first African American to run a competitive congressional campaign in Louisiana, losing by about 5,000 votes. An active church parishioner and minister, Williams completed a candidacy for a doctorate of ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C.
Williams has made her biggest mark as an activist for peace and human rights. Williams published three books, most notably,The Peace Terrorists, which is a day by day account of her forty-day peace mission prior to the First Gulf War. Williams was one of 200 women held at gunpoint for twenty days in the Arabian Sea. In 1995, she helped organize the Million Man March, serving as host committee co-chair and international spokesperson. At the march, Williams was one of the few women to address the large crowd assembled on the Mall.
Inspired by the Million Man March, Williams started Natural Health Options and Carver/Curtis Products, where she serves as president and CEO. Her companies hold exclusive rights to produce the natural health remedies pioneered by George Washington Carver and his assistant, Austin W. Curtis. Williams also helped organize the Million Family March in 2000. She remains active in several civic organizations. She sits on the board of Partners for Peace, is an adviser to the Woman’s Health Network and Council on Nutrition, and works on the steering committee for Change the Name. Williams is the recipient of numerous awards for her activism and service to community.
E. Faye Williams describes her experience as host city co-chair for the Million Man March in 1995, pt. 1
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E. Faye Williams describes the prominent politicians and activists she met in Atlanta, Georgia
Well tell me about, you know, how that–tell me about how the Million Man March even got started?
In 1995 there were a lot of
things
that were wrong in the
country, particularly in our
community with rising
crime
rates and all and [HM] Minister [Louis] Farrakhan decided that he wanted to try and do something to make a
difference and so he went on about a year long trip around the country
talking to
young
African
American men. He was calling for men to come out to the meeting because he felt
that that was where he really could
make a
difference. And so he went from city to city talking to young men
about building up to this million men
coming to
Washington [D.C.] and this positive display and
coming out of it
with some new attitudes. I had an opportunity to travel to some
cities to help organize them for the march but mainly I was here in Washington. And the way really that I guess I got to be the chairperson was when Minister Farrakhan came to Washington and we all packed this place to hear about this march and what was going to happen and he was saying this was the day women would get a chance to stay at home. Unlike what the media said that we had to stay at home, that wasn’t what he said. He really said we’d get a chance to stay at home, in other words we could sit back on that day, come home
from work, not have to go out, not
have to be up front, we could just enjoy seeing all these wonderful things the men were going to be doing that day. And of
course, at the end of the session I raised my hand and said “Now Minister you know I love you, I admire you and I respect you but I don’t
have any
children at home, I don’t have a husband at home and it’s going to be awfully boring if I have to sit there that day by myself” (laugh) and he kind of laughed and then of course the next thing I knew his chief of staff came to me and
said you’re going to run the meetings every
night. So I started running the meetings, you know, the
organizing meetings and from that point I was just made the chair. I replaced
someone who had
started out doing it and for the rest of it, we were in charge of
organizing the march.
Now had you had contact with the Minister Farrakhan up until this point, had you had a previous relationship with him?
Just hearing him speak, listening to his tapes.
Nothing in
particular, no.
And so the march, just sort of tell how it came together. I mean at what point were you–did you really get involved, that’s what I’m trying to understand? How much had he been talking about it beforehand?
Well he had been going–he’d gone to several different cities before he came to Washington. I would imagine six weeks or so at least before he came to
Washington. But I was involved from the very first night that he came to Washington with the story I just told you and chaired the meetings thereafter, all the way through the
march and even after the march we continued because we were trying to assess
where we
were, what are some of
good
things
that are happening as a
result of the
march. So we stayed together for
quite a while
after that. Then of course, at a certain
point the men took over again and decided they could do it better. By that time I needed a break and I needed to get
back to
Click Here
Isn’t It Time?
By
Dr. E. Faye Williams
4/26/19
TriceEdney—Black women in Houston, TX and across the nation began preparing to use our political power during a recent event held at Texas Southern University. Presidential candidates attended to begin a conversation with Black women regarding what’s important to us, and what we’re looking for from candidates in 2020.
Isn’t it time for us to begin using our economic power, too? A few months ago, the Black Leadership Alliance, Clear the Air Ways and the National Congress of Black Women began the campaign called RESPECT US, to urge corporations that spend millions of dollars in advertising on radio programs that play hate music that disrespects our communities, and in particular, Black women and girls.
We’ve made every effort to get the attention of the guilty parties, but it’s as if they don’t care and relish making it possible for stations to play the degrading, hateful music that worships murder, illegal drugs, shooting up neighborhoods and misogyny.
We recognize there’re Black franchisees of McDonalds and Subway Restaurants, but that’s not a good reason for accepting the disrespect of our people. Franchise owners should be the first in line influencing their corporate offices to spend their advertising dollars on programs that uplift us. Franchise owners don’t get a pass just because they want to earn a dollar off the very community they should be uplifting. Some franchise owners make modest donations to certain community activities. That’s all the more reason they should want to clean up the filth their corporate owners are paying for.
We’ve made every effort to communicate with not only McDonald’s and Subway Restaurant corporate offices, but have been ignored. We’ve taken the same step with other heads of corporations that disrespect our community, but the time has come for us to move to action.
Juneteenth has some meaning in to us so we’re asking you to join us on the weekend of June 21-23 to join with brothers and sisters in Atlanta, Washington, DC; Philadelphia, New York and Chicago to support our effort on this Juneteenth Economic Withdrawal Weekend. Don’t Shop at McDonalds and Subways Restaurants because when you do, you are supporting these offenders, and disrespecting the communities some try so hard to clean up and protect. It’s the duty of all of us to support events and projects that are in our best interest.
We oppose vulgar hateful rhetoric that encourages the killing of Black people and the abuse and degrading of Black women and girls in particular.
Below are actual lyrics from current rappers: “Wet your mamas house (meaning to spill blood) wet your grandmamas house. Keep shooting til somebody die. Spray your block down, we not really with that rah rah sh**t Glock cocked now, I don’t really give no fu**k bout who I hit. Coupe got the missing roof, your boo come up missing too Poof, I just stole your boo, now ooh, she got to eat the whole crew. We done with her come and pick your b**ch back up.”
There’re many more rappers putting out this same kind of filth. In the words of the late Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: “We’re the only people on this entire planet who’ve been taught to sing and praise our demeanment (calling ourselves bit*hes, ho*s, dogs and ni**as)…If you can train people to demean and degrade themselves, you can oppress them forever. You can even program them to kill themselves and they won’t even understand what happened.”
McDonalds and Subways are major sponsors of these disrespectful songs. They’ve chosen instead to continue paying to sponsor this hateful rhetoric. No other group has to ask sponsors to withdraw from offensive media. Sponsors do so willingly. Respect yourself, and demand that all others RESPECT US.
(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women and host of WPFW-FM’s “Wake Up and Stay Woke.”)
Respect Us
Join with brothers and sisters in Atlanta, Washington DC, Philadelphia,
New York and Chicago
Support the Juneteenth Economic Withdrawal Weekend
June 21, 22, 23rd
Don’t Shop at McDonalds, and Subways Restaurants
We oppose vulgar hateful rhetoric that encourages the killing of Black people in general
and the abuse and degrading of Black women and girls in particular.
These are actual lyrics from current rap performers
“Wet your mamas house (which means to spill blood) wet your grandmamas house
Keep shooting til somebody die.
Spray your block down, we not really with that rah rah sht Glock cocked now, I don’t really give no fuk bout who I hit.
“Coupe got the missing roof, your boo come up missing too
Poof, I just stole your boo, now ooh, she got to eat the whole crew
We done with her come and pick your b**ch back up”
As major sponsors of radio that promotes these hateful messages McDonalds and Subways
have refused to talk to the National Congress Of Black Women and other representatives
of the Black community and have chosen instead to continue to sponsor this hateful
rhetoric.
No other group has to ask sponsors to withdraw from offensive media, sponsors do so
willingly. Respect Yourself, and demand that all others RESPECT US.
We are: The National Congress Of Black Women ,The National Black Leadership
Alliance, The Clear The Airwaves Project.
For information and updates: www.nationalcongressbw.org /
nationalblackleadershipalliance.org. or Call 202 678-6788
Dr EFaye Williams, Esq. <drefayewilliams@gmail.com>To:Johnnie Rice,Terry ReeceJun 17 at 6:25 PM
Please
send this to your e-mail lists ASAP. Also, if you have access to
printing, please distribute flyers from Juneteenth-Sunday June 23rd to
help us in this campaign to say to McDonald’s and Subway Restaurants,
you have options to advertise on stations with conscious music instead
of radio station that insist upon playing lyrics that denigrate Black
women and the Black community with lyrics about murder, kidnapping,
drugs, rape, hate, misogyny, etc.
We
have made every effort to speak directly with corporate offices of
McDonald’s and Subway. They have totally ignored us, so we are asking
everyone not to spend money where we are not respected.
Dr. E. Faye Williams, MPA, DPA, D.Min, D.Th, Esq.
President/CEO, National Congress of Black Women, Inc. 1250 4th Street, SW, Suite WG-1, Washington, DC 20024
202/678-6788; E-mail: drefayewilliams@gmail.comwww.nationalcongressbw.org
Join me on WPFW/Pacifica Radio, 89.3fm; wpfwfm.org; @WPFWDCEvery Wednesday, 10 am Eastern Time–“Wake Up and Stay Woke”
“It is through our struggles that we gain our victories.” Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
“Do you think the Indians celebrate Columbus Day on Indian Reservations?” Dick Gregory “When
the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, the last stream
poisoned, you will realize you can’t eat money.” Native American
Proverb
“It is my duty to protect those I love.” Black PantherUntil the lions tell their own story, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter. — African Proverb
