JULY 4: Dr. Cal Williams, African American History Keeper and Alaskan Grio

East Anchorage Book Club with Andrew Gray

Community activist Dr. Cal Williams was born on November 30, 1941, in Monroe, Louisiana. A college graduate, Williams served in the United States Air Force during the early 1960s and participated in the Civil Rights Movement through his affiliation with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). In 1965, following the advice of Charles and John LeViege, two high school friends who were enrolled at Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University), Williams came to Anchorage seeking a change. .

Over the next 60 years, Williams worked at Providence Alaska Medical Center as a dishwasher (aka director of pots and pans), then as a nursing assistant at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, and eventually landed a role in communications for Alaska Housing Finance Corporation until his retirement.

Williams served as president of the Alaska chapter of the NAACP from 1968 to 1970. During that time, he partnered with Alaska Native leadership to lobby for the landmark Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Williams was honored by the Anchorage Municipal Assembly for his contributions to the growth and strength to the State of Alaska. In 2017, Williams was the recipient of the St. Francis of Assisi Award. Williams has served as Grand Knight of the Council of Knights of Columbus at St. Patrick's Church in Anchorage, as well as in 2018, he served as the District 22 chair for the Alaska Democratic Party.

More recently, Williams collaborated with UAA associate professor of history Ian Hartman, Ph.D., and David Reamer in the writing of Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest. Together, they have done presentations, book signings, museum exhibitions and archive curations. For his invaluable contributions, UAA awarded Williams an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in fall 2022.
The 400 years of African American History Commission, a federally appointed committee established in 2019 with the goal of rediscovering the 400 years of history since Africans were first brought to English colonies in 1619, recognized Cal Williams during Juneteenth 2024 as one of America’s 400 African American History Keepers.