ALFRED WILLIAMS HONORED AS MAN OF KINDNESS & GENEROSITY
Clinton, Tennessee (JFK+50) Last Saturday, March 23, 2019, Alfred Williams*, one of the 'Clinton 12' was laid to rest here in this small East Tennessee town. Mr. Williams was described "as a man of love, kindness and generosity." Although nicknamed "Frog," he enjoyed handing out treats to students when he worked for the Clinton City Schools and was known as the "Candy Man."
Mr. Williams was buried in the churchyard of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church very near where his statue and those of the 11 other members of the Clinton 12 stand today.
On August 27, 1956, Alfred Williams was one of twelve "frightened black students" who walked "down Foley Hill onto Broad Street" to previously segregated Clinton High School "through a gauntlet of jeering protesters."**
Civil Rights histories do not generally include the story of the Clinton 12 which came more than one year before the Little Rock 9. One of the reasons may be that Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement sent 600 National Guardsmen to ENFORCE the Supreme Court desegregation decision, while Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used National Guardsmen to BLOCK integration in Little Rock.
The story of the Clinton 12 did not end with their successful admittance to CHS. Threats and violence followed as segregationists arrived in town to rally white citizens culminating in the bombing of Clinton High School on October 5, 1958.
Clintonites, however, can be proud of many positive things that came with the negative. CHS's principal employed the support of white football players, including captain Jerry Shattuck, to protect the black students attending the school and when Clinton High School was being rebuilt after the explosions, their arch football rival Oak Ridge High's band played the CHS alma mater as students arrived at their temporary home of Linden Elementary School in Oak Ridge.
*Alfred Williams was born in Anniston, AL on Dec 6, 1935. AW moved to Clinton, TN as a child & entered Clinton High as a senior in the fall of 1956. His brother was also enrolled aT CHS.
**Prior to their attendance at CHS, African-American students attended Green McAdoo Elementary School in Clinton and after graduation were bused to Austin High School in Knoxville, TN.
JFK+50 NOTE:
Alfred Williams becomes the third member of "the 12" to pass away. He joins Ronald Hayden (1966) & Maurice Soles (2010).
SOURCES
"Alfred Williams, member of the Clinton 12, laid to rest Saturday," by Andrew Capps, Knoxville News Sentinel, March 25, 2019.
Green McAdoo Cultural Center, Clinton, Tennessee, www.greenmcadoo.org/
"The Ultimate Risk: Members of pioneering Clinton 12 recall high school's integration 50 years ago," by Bob Fowler, February 26, 2006, www.web.archive.org/
Clinton 12 Monument
Green McAdoo Cultural Center
Clinton, TN
Photo by John White (2008)
Clinton, Tennessee
View from Foley Hill
Photo by John White (2008)
Clinton High School Jacket & Sweater
circa 1950s
Green McAdoo Cultural Center
Photo by John White (2008)
