bust of John B. Williams in namesake plaza photo CC SA-BY Our OaklandJohn Bentley Williams (April 16, 1917 – October 13, 1976) served as the director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency from 1964 until his death in 1976. On January 1, 1976, shortly before his death, he became the director of the newly-created Office of Community Development, which oversaw the ORA and other related departments. 1 He oversaw major redevelopment projects including Acorn Housing and Acorn Industrial, Oak Center, City Center, Laney College, and the Grove Shafter Freeway. The plaza connecting City Center with the 12th Street BART station is named for him, 2 as is the I-980 Freeway. 3   

Williams was born April 6, 1917 in Covington, Georgia - the son of a Baptist minister. He studied fine art at the Cleveland Institute of Art- receiving his BFA in 1939, and worked as an art teacher and free-lance artist before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1944. Discharged in 1946, he was working as a graphic artist for the Ohio bureau of the Pittsburgh Courier when he met Valena Minor—a journalist and editor at the paper who he went on to marry and raise four daughters with. According to Mrs. Williams, “we decided we could make beautiful ads together (he could draw and she could write)” so they formed an art and advertising agency, which Williams supplemented by teaching fashion illustration classes. In 1948 Williams became an employee of the City of Cleveland Urban Redevelopment program . He remained a civil servant, as an Urban Renewal Commissioner from 1955 to 1964, eventually working his way up to the head of the Division of Urban Renewal while Valena developed an award winning career as a radio host, journalist, and community organizer.

Recruited directly by Oakland Redevelopment Agency Chairman Ken Smith, the only Black commissioner in the agency, Williams assumed the position as the director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency on September 1, 1964, and remained in the job until his death from a sudden and aggressive cancer in 1976. “I do not pretend to come before you as the Messiah with a glib promise that urban renewal and Redevelopment is the cure-all for the problems and ills of Oakland,” he told constituents at his first public presentation, three months after his arrival. “We will either move forward or slide backwards—there is no standing still.” Williams was a bureaucrat, but he was also ambitious. He believed that Oakland was a city of unique potential. Lauded as a forceful champion for Affirmative Action, he was the first city official to enforce minority training and hiring policies, demanding that all ORA projects hire laborers and award contracts proportionate to Oakland demographics.

At Williams’ recommendation, though with audible reservation, Oakland City Council approved the selection of the Beneficial Development Group for the Acorn project. Beneficial was headed by William Byron Rumford, the California State Assemblyman —and the first African American elected to state public office in Northern California—who had pushed the Fair Housing Bill through the senate and into law in 1963. Beneficial was “composed of a team of energetic Black entrepreneurs” including newspaper publisher Carlton B. Goodlett and real estate developer Samuel B. O’Dell. Williams. In February 1965 Williams announced that nearly 75% of the home owners in the Oak Center project area would have the option to rehabilitate their homes if they chose to- though it is important to note that choosing rehabilitation and having access to resources and funding to make rehabilitation possible are not one in the same. Originally promised the preservation of no more than twenty percent of the homes in Oak Center, this stood as a stunning victory for the Oak Center Neighborhood Association (OCNA). An OCNA advisory committee, headed by Lillian Love, would partner with the agency to survey homes, provide assistance to homeowners and give input on the final plan for the area. During contentious negotiations regarding Model Cities funding between the West Oakland Planning Committee, the Oakland Economic Development Council, and Oakland City Council, Williams was chosen by community members as a trusted member of city government to mediate.

He was a leading member of the New Oakland Committee, which brought labor, business, and minority groups together and founded First Enterprise Bank, the first minority-owned bank in Northern California. He served as President of the National Association of Community Development Officials (1973- 75), was a Director on the Advisory Board of the Oakland YMCA, served on the Board of Directors of the Oakland Social Service Bureau and the Oakland Museum Association, and was a member of both the Urban League and the NAACP. He was the first African American president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), a title he held for two consecutive terms.

Mr. Williams died of cancer on October 13, 1976, at the age of 59, weeks before the opening of City Center, the last project he oversaw, and the plaza was eventually named for him in a ceremony in 1987. A bronze bust of Williams commissioned by NAHRO, by artist Emiko Matsutsuyu, sits at the plaza entrance from the 12th Street BART station. At his funeral on October 19, 1976, then-Mayor John Reading stated that Mr. Williams was one of the most outstanding men he had seen in his decade as mayor. "And I believe it is both prophetic and tremendously significant that they were both black," stated Mayor Reading. 4 (The other man he was referencing was former OUSD superintendent Marcus Foster who had been assassinated a few years earlier.) Hundreds of people came to Williams' funeral at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church.

Video

A brief video about John B. Williams by Annalee Allen:

Links and References

  1. Council OK's Big Shakeup Oakland Tribune November 21, 1975

  2. "Honor for Williams" Oakland Tribune October 14, 1976

  3. I-980 named for civic leader Oakland Tribune August 14, 1987

  4. "Community Leaders Praise Williams' Work, Spirit" Oakland Tribune October 18, 1976

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