When Arance Williamson got involved in the civil rights movement at the age of 14, few African-Americans voted, much less ever dreamed of holding elective office in her hometown of Greenwood.
Ms. Williamson worked on the front lines to change that and later embodied the city’s political and racial transformation when the career educator became one of the first black women to be elected to its City Council.
Ms. Williamson died from cancer at her home Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. She was 71.
“Her loss not only impacts our family but also this community,” said Williamson’s brother, Charles Brooks. “She spent her entire life working to help make a difference in Greenwood, and in the process she touched the lives of countless students, constituents and the community as a whole.”
Ms. Williamson was born on May 27, 1946, to Sidney Pickens and Susie Brooks, the mother from whom Williamson said she received the gift of speaking out against injustice.
A graduate of Mississippi Valley State University, Ms. Williamson had taught school for many years and was serving as chairman of the Greenwood Housing Authority when she successfully ran for the Ward 5 seat on the City Council in 1993. She was one of two black women — the other was Sheriel Perkins — to be elected to the council that year.
Two years later, she was elected the council’s president, with the support of white council members, in an effort to reduce the rancor that frequently marked the body’s deliberations at the time.
She served in that position until 2001, citing the need to give others on the council the opportunity to serve in the leadership position.
At the time, Ms. Williamson told the Commonwealth that she was proud of her accomplishments as president and as Ward 5’s representative.
“I think I’ve brought some decency and integrity to the council as well as some calmness,” she said. “That’s what I tried to do.”
She served one more term before retiring from the council in 2005.
As a teenager, Ms. Williamson became involved in the civil rights movement, starting in 1964, a time she characterized as the best and most productive time in her life.
“I just wanted to be a part of the change,” Ms. Williamson told the Commonwealth in 2004 when she was profiled for Black History Month. “It didn’t matter if I got arrested. I was concerned about oppression.”
Being part of the movement changed her and formed her, Ms. Williamson said.
“It took away my self-absorption. It enabled me to see outside myself.”
She frequently walked after school to the McLaurin Street headquarters of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, where she witnessed prominent movement leaders such as Stokely Carmichael, Willie Peacock, Sam Block and Bob Moses organizing efforts to change Greenwood.
She was an activist around voting rights, racial discrimination by local businesses and any other cause regarding the rights of African-Americans to equal citizenship. She had witnessed her mother being denied the right to vote and never forgot it.
Ms. Williamson was arrested multiple times by the Greenwood Police Department and jailed at the city jail and at the old “county farm.”
She remembered and spoke openly about methods employed by Greenwood police to disperse marchers during the movement, including using billy clubs, police dogs, water hoses and electric cattle prods.
In 2004, she expressed disappointment that the movement for freedom and equality, in which people she knew had died for their beliefs, was taken for granted.
“I don’t feel that we, as a people, are where we should be,” she said. “The younger generation isn’t taking advantage of what we fought for.”
This summer, Bill Clay of the Greenwood Mentoring Group invited Ms. Williamson to speak to students participating in his summer camp dedicated to teaching children about the history of the civil rights movement in Greenwood and around the Deep South.
“Unfortunately, she was having health issues and couldn’t participate,” Clay said, though Ms. Williamson was pleased to hear about his program.
“I knew her a long time,” Clay said. “She was a super person.
“With Arance, what you saw was what you got.”
A memorial service for Ms. Williamson will be held next Saturday at Greater Turner Chapel AME Church.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
