{{Short description|American politician, civil rights activist, and museum executive (1936–2019)}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Iola Williams |native_name = |image = |caption = |office = San Jose City Council member |term_start = 1979 |term_end = 1991 |predecessor = Susanne Wilson |successor = ? |birth_name = Iola Craft |birth_date = {{birth date|1936|2|2}} |birth_place = Hattiesburg, Mississippi |death_date = {{death date and age|2019|4|4|1936|2|2}} |death_place = Lampasas, Texas |spouse = George Williams |children = |party = Democratic Party |other_party = |education = |occupation = |website = }}
'''Iola M. Williams''' (February 2, 1936 – April 4, 2019) was an American politician, public official, civil rights activist and museum executive. In 1979, Williams became the first African-American to join the San Jose City Council, an office she held from her appointment in 1979 until her retirement from council in 1991. During this time, she also served as the Vice Mayor of San Jose, California for two terms.<ref name=sjs>{{cite news |title=Iola Williams, first African-American councilwoman in San Jose, dies |url=https://sanjosespotlight.com/iola-williams-first-african-american-councilwoman-in-san-jose-dies/ |work=San Jose Spotlight |date=2019-04-07 |access-date=2020-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119015009/https://sanjosespotlight.com/iola-williams-first-african-american-councilwoman-in-san-jose-dies/ |archive-date=2020-01-19 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=mn>{{cite news |first=Julia |last=Prodis Sulek |title=Iola Williams, San Jose's first black City Council member, remembered as trailblazer |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/07/iola-williams-san-joses-first-black-city-council-member-remembered-as-trailblazer/ |work=The Mercury News |date=2019-04-07 |access-date=2020-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408185836/https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/07/iola-williams-san-joses-first-black-city-council-member-remembered-as-trailblazer/ |archive-date=2019-04-08 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=wdam>{{cite news |title=Pine Belt civil rights leader Iola Williams dies |url=https://www.wdam.com/2019/04/05/pine-belt-civil-rights-leader-iola-williams-dies/ |work=WDAM-TV |date=2019-04-05 |access-date=2020-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412072412/http://www.wdam.com/2019/04/05/pine-belt-civil-rights-leader-iola-williams-dies/ |archive-date=2019-04-12 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=adp>{{cite news |first=Albert C.|last=Jones |title=Mrs. Iola Williams' return to Hattiesburg a work in heritage tourism and revival of World War II-era USO Club |url=http://www.americadiversityplace.com/Other/SeniorVoices.aspx |work=America, The Diversity Place |access-date=2020-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119133157/http://www.americadiversityplace.com/Other/SeniorVoices.aspx |archive-date=2020-01-19 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=sjsu>{{cite news |first=Danielle L.|last=Moon |title=Storming Politics: San José Women in the"Feminist Capital, 1975-2006 |url=https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=lib_pub |work=San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks |date=November 2006 |access-date=2020-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126134127/https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=lib_pub |archive-date=2020-01-26 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Williams was instrumental in the creation of the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as the institution's former executive director.<ref name=wdam/> She saved the museum's original, existing structure, which had opened in 1942 as a USO Club for African American soldiers stationed at nearby Camp Shelby during World War II.<ref name=wdam/><ref name=adp/> Under Williams, the former USO Club building was preserved, renovated and re-opened as the African American Military History Museum in 2009.<ref name=wdam/><ref name=adp/>
==Early life== Williams was born '''Iola Craft''' on February 2, 1936, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to parents who were a teacher and warehouse worker.<ref name=mn/><ref name=wdam/> She attended the Eureka School in Hattiesburg, the first brick black school building constructed in the state of Mississippi during segregation.<ref name=adp/>
In 1955, Croft married George Williams Sr., a United States Air Force non-commissioned officer from her neighborhood.<ref name=mn/> George Williams eventually rose to the rank of master sergeant during his career.<ref name=adp/> The couple had seven children within the first ten years of their marriage - four daughters, Jenifer, Audrey, Beverly, and Ila, and three sons, Vincent, George Jr., and Kevin.<ref name=mn/><ref name=adp/> Iola Williams and her family moved frequently due to her husband's Air Force career.<ref name=mn/> The family were stationed in bases in South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Illinois, and California, as well as three years in Europe, including a base in West Germany.<ref name=mn/><ref name=adp/>
In 1966, while Iola Williams was living overseas, the Ku Klux Klan attacked and fire bombed the home of her cousin, Vernon Dahmer, who had been using his grocery store to help black residents of Hattiesburg register to vote.<ref name=mn/> Dahmer died from burns sustained in the attack and his murder drew national attention.<ref name=mn/>
==Political career== In 1969, Iola Williams and her family moved to San Jose, California, where her husband had been hired as a mechanic for United Airlines.<ref name=mn/> At this point, Williams had studied to become a licensed vocational nurse and began work at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose.<ref name=mn/> The Williams attended Antioch Baptist Church in downtown San Jose, which ''The Mercury News'' described as "an incubator of emerging black leaders."<ref name=mn/> Iola Williams played the piano, sang in the church choir and volunteered in the church's school, which would lead to her interest in running for the local school board.<ref name=mn/>
In 1970, Iola Williams became the first African-American to be elected to the Franklin-McKinley School District school board, which covers a portion of the city of San Jose.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=wdam/> She served on the school board from 1970 until her appointment to the San Jose City Council in 1979.<ref name=mn/> Williams' election to the school board marked the beginning of a wave of female candidates who were elected to public office throughout Santa Clara County during the 1970s.<ref name=mn/> The county became known as the "feminist capital of the world" due to the unprecedented number of female elected officials during this era.<ref name=mn/> Notable women who entered elected politics the decade included Williams and Janet Gray Hayes, who became the first female Mayor of San Jose in 1975.<ref name=mn/> Women also gained majorities on the San Jose City Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, a rarity in the United States at this time.<ref name=mn/> Williams credited the rise of other female politicians in Santa Clara County with helping her enter politics and navigate the political landscape during the 1970s.<ref name=mn/>
Williams began her public career by serving on the Franklin-McKinley School District school board, which covers a portion of the city of San Jose, California, for 12 years, until her appointment to the San Jose City Council in 1979.<ref name=sjs/> A young Ken Yeager, and future District 6 City Councilmember, worked with William's campaign.<ref>"Iola Williams, first African-American councilwoman in San Jose, dies," San Jose Spotlight, April 7, 2018. https://sanjosespotlight.com/iola-williams-first-african-american-councilwoman-in-san-jose-dies/</ref>
Williams launched an unsuccessful attempt to unseat San Jose councilman Joe Colla in the late 1970s using the creative campaign slogan "Iola the Un-Colla", but lost the race.<ref name=mn/>
However, soon after the 1978 election, incumbent San Jose Council member Susanne Wilson vacated her seat following her election to the country-wide Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.<ref name=sjsu/> (Wilson had previously become the third women elected to San Jose City Council back in 1974.)<ref name=sjsu/> Iola Williams was appointed fill Wilson's newly vacant seat on the San Jose City Council in 1979, becoming the first African-American to serve on the council in its history.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=mn/><ref name=sjsu/> She was elected to her first full term in 1980.<ref name=mn/> Williams served on the city council from 1979 until her retirement in 1991, including two simultaneous terms as the Vice Mayor of San Jose.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=mn/>
In 1980, shortly after joining city council, Williams received and completed a United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fellowship to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.<ref name=adp/>
Williams was known as a champion for minority and women's rights during her tenure on city council. According to Ken Yeager, a former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors who worked on Williams' political campaigns for school board and city council during the 1970s, "Iola was a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement...As the first African American to serve on the San Jose City Council, she led the way for other minorities to run for office."<ref name=sjs/> Yeager also praised her contributions to equal rights, noting that, "She was so open and so friendly and someone who just had a remarkable moral compass at a time when there was still a lot of controversy over women’s rights, African American rights, gay rights."<ref name=mn/> In 1986, when a local gay rights organization called Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC) held in its first dinner, Iola Williams was the only elected official to attend the event.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=mn/>
During the 1980s, members of the Ku Klux Klan applied for a permit to march through downtown San Jose. Iola Williams had grown up in segregated Mississippi and her cousin, activist Vernon Dahmer, had been murdered in a KKK attack in Hattiesburg in 1966.<ref name=mn/> However, Iola Williams surprised observers and colleagues by voting to allow the march in San Jose, citing her commitment to civil rights.<ref name=mn/> According to her daughter, Jenifer Williams, "People were surprised. They didn't know where that vote was coming from. It was coming from her own life experiences. She said that her cousin had died for those civil rights."<ref name=mn/>
Iola Williams also focused on San Jose's neighborhoods and local services.<ref name=sjs/> For example, she supported San Jose's shift to district elections for the city council, which gave neighborhoods more of a voice in choosing their council members.<ref name=sjs/> She also cast a deciding vote to keep the city's 10th and 11th as one-way streets due to traffic concerns and the safety of pedestrians.<ref name=sjs/>
She and her colleagues on the city council established a new program to aide senior citizens access healthcare services.<ref name=adp/><ref name=kntv/> The program, which she described as her greatest achievement,<ref name=kntv/> was later renamed the Iola Williams Seniors Program by city council in her honor.<ref name=adp/>
Williams achieved influential positions in California's state politics as well. She was elected president of the League of California Cities, a nonpartisan association of state city officials.<ref name=adp/> She also served on the League's human resource committee, as well as the organization's board of directors, which represents California cities in both the Governor's Office of Planning and Research Council and state Task Force on Civil Rights.<ref name=kntv>{{cite news |first=Lili |last=Tan |title='People Need to Shut Up and Feel': South Bay Civil Rights Legend Iola Williams Honored |url=https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/people-need-to-shut-up-and-feel-south-bay-civil-rights-legend-iola-williams-honored/72620/ |work=KNTV |date=2016-01-18 |access-date=2020-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126132051/https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/people-need-to-shut-up-and-feel-south-bay-civil-rights-legend-iola-williams-honored/72620/ |archive-date=2020-01-26 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Williams served in leadership roles within the statewide California Democratic Party.<ref name=adp/> Iola Williams can also be credited with saving the life of her 17 year old neighbor, from committing suicide, when he was suffering from an internal crisis. Iola Williams also insisted that the incident receive no media coverage to protect the young man and his family.
==Return to Mississippi== In 1991, Williams decided not to seek re-election and retired from the San Jose City Council.<ref name=sjs/> Her husband also retired from his position as an airline mechanic in the early 1990s.<ref name=mn/> Williams and her husband returned to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, without telling their friends or co-workers, shortly after leaving office.<ref name=adp/> During her years in California, Williams had visited Hattiesburg frequently to take care of her mother and kept a small mobile home in the area for this reason.<ref name=adp/> Once back in her hometown, Williams would become deeply involved with a number of local, government, economic development, and community organizations.<ref name=adp/>
Soon after returning to Mississippi, Hattiesburg Mayor J. Ed Morgan invited Williams to join the city administration and appointed her as the Director of Recreation and Community Relations in 1992.<ref name=wdam/> At the time of her hiring, Mayor Morgan noted that the city government could not pay Williams a salary comparable to those available back in California.<ref name=wdam/> However, Morgan promised Williams that the city would help redevelop a neglected former USO Club (and, later, a former library and community center), which the city acquired in 1993.<ref name=adp/> The club, which had opened in 1942 as a venue for African-American servicemen from Camp Shelby during World War II, stood in the historic black neighborhood of Mobile.<ref name=adp/> The plan was greeted with optimism at the time by local leaders, including the then-president of the Mobile-Bouie Neighborhood Association.<ref name=adp/>
Williams, as head of the community relations office, asked local military veterans to donate and locate artifacts which would be displayed at a new proposed museum at the USO club site. The new, proposed museum would later become known as the African American Military History Museum.<ref name=adp/> During the same time period, the Hattiesburg Convention Commission was created by the Mississippi State Legislature during the 1990s to grow and fund Hattiesburg's tourism, convention and economic development sectors, including the construction of new facilities and infrastructure.<ref name=adp/> A 2 percent sales tax on food and beverages at local restaurants was enacted to provide funding to improve new and exiting city buildings, including renovations to the Saenger Theater and the new Lake Terrace Convention Center.<ref name=adp/>
Revenue from the Hattiesburg Convention Commission was also allocated to Williams' proposed museum at the USO club.<ref name=adp/> The renovation of the existing USO Club, which was preserved during its transition into the museum, cost an estimated $1.1 million, according to an annual report issued by the Hattiesburg Convention Commission.<ref name=adp/> Another $400,000 was needed to create the new museum's collections and exhibits.<ref name=adp/>
The African American Military History Museum opened to the public on May 23, 2009. It is the only existing USO Club that served African American servicemen during World War II that remains in use in the United States.<ref name=adp/> In an interview, Williams described her favorite exhibit as the one featuring Ruth Bailey Earl, a United States Army nurse who served during World War II.<ref name=adp/> She praised Earl, who died in 2004, saying, "Ruth Earl was much older than I and I admired her so much...She was the black nurse at the health department clinic. When she returned to Hattiesburg, she remembered me and stopped by my office anytime she was downtown. She was one of the most uninhibited persons I have ever known. She would always have something comical to say. She was always fashionable. She lit up any room. She would never talk about her time in the military. She would only to say, 'The army treated us so bad. You would not believe me if I told you how we were treated as black nurses."<ref name=adp/>
Iola Williams served as a Hattiesburg Convention Commission commissioner from 2004 until 2014 for three terms.<ref name=mn/> Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree reappointed her to her final term on the commission from August 18, 2012, until her retirement on August 17, 2014.<ref name=adp/>
Iola and George Williams established a lunch program for local Mississippi senior citizens who had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2006.<ref name=mn/>
==Later life== In January 2016, she returned to San Jose to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the African-American Community Service Agency.<ref name=mn/><ref name=kntv/><ref name=mn2>{{cite news |first=Sal |last=Pizarro |title=Iola Williams, pioneering San Jose councilwoman, honored on MLK Day |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/01/20/pizarro-iola-williams-pioneering-san-jose-councilwoman-honored-on-mlk-day/ |work=The Mercury News |date=2016-01-20 |access-date=2020-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505091713/https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/01/20/pizarro-iola-williams-pioneering-san-jose-councilwoman-honored-on-mlk-day/ |archive-date=2017-05-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> That same year, the award was renamed in her honor.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=mn2/> She reminded attendees that her own relatives had been unable to vote during their lifetimes, "My grandmother could not vote. My mother, it wasn't until the 70s until she could vote. So a lot of things happened during that time. They seemed like little things but they carried families through the years. We have seen a lot of the things that remain, but there's so much that has to be done."<ref name=kntv/> Williams also joked during her acceptance speech that "I'm glad I got my flowers while I'm still alive."<ref name=mn/> Attendees at the 2016 awards, held at the San Jose Scottish Rite Temple, included U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Mike Honda.<ref name=mn2/>
Iola Williams and her husband moved to Lampasas, Texas, to be closer to her family following her diagnosis with Parkinson's disease.<ref name=sjs/> She died from Parkinson's disease in Lampasas on April 4, 2019, at the age of 83.<ref name=sjs/> Iola Williams was survived by her husband, George, seven children, seventeen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.<ref name=sjs/><ref name=mn/> Her funeral was held on April 20, 2019.<ref name=mn/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Iola}} Category:1936 births Category:2019 deaths Category:San Jose City Council members Category:Vice mayors of San Jose, California Category:American civil rights activists Category:Directors of museums in the United States Category:Museum founders Category:American women museum directors Category:Women city councillors in California Category:African-American city council members in California Category:California Democrats Category:Harvard Kennedy School alumni Category:Politicians from San Jose, California Category:Politicians from Hattiesburg, Mississippi Category:People from Lampasas, Texas Category:American expatriates in Germany Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:20th-century African-American people Category:21st-century African-American people Category:20th-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American women Category:American women human rights activists