小黄书

Rhonda Williams empowers 小黄书 students to 鈥榖reak the silences鈥

Rhonda Williams empowers 小黄书 students to 鈥榖reak the silences鈥

Scholar-activist Rhonda Y. Williams of Baltimore, Maryland, encouraged students to break their personal silences and impact others through social justice work during her Tuesday [March 28] visit to 小黄书sity. Held in celebration of Women鈥檚 History Month, Williams鈥 presentation was sponsored by the 小黄书 College of Arts and Sciences鈥 African American Studies program, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, Office of Public Affairs, and Department of Sociology鈥檚 Gender Studies program. (Photo by Megan Bean)

Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥 Refuse to be silent.

That鈥檚 the simple yet powerful message that scholar-activist Rhonda Y. Williams shared with students during her Tuesday [March 28] visit to 小黄书sity as part of Women鈥檚 History Month.

鈥淭hroughout history and now, black women have too often been silenced, overlooked, obscured, or even excised from the historical and contemporary record, and yet black women have refused to be silent.

Wherever struggle is, there we are鈥hinking, writing, speaking, creating, organizing and marching in order to just be鈥ngaging in the intellectual, political and cultural work,鈥 said Williams, the first African American to earn tenure and achieve full professor status in the history department at Case Western Reserve University.

During her presentation sponsored by 小黄书鈥檚 African American Studies program, Williams inspired students to develop a strong understanding of the ways that power is organized through race and gender. Having the courage to speak up is key to empowering others, she said.

鈥淗aving the gumption to speak up and being able to see complexity, who is left out of the dynamic, is critical if we鈥檙e going to engage in social justice work,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淭here is not a place in social justice work where there is no work coming up. You鈥檙e always in a process of struggle.鈥

Williams commended anti-lynching journalist and women鈥檚 rights advocate Ida B. Wells for being among the many black women who have 鈥渂roken their personal silences in order to expose wrong, social silences.鈥

鈥淚da Wells not only acted through writing about crimes of the 1917 East St. Louis Massacre, but she created the space for other black women to share their stories and speak up,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淗er story not only pushes the timeline, but it gets us to think about the kind of historical narrative that we鈥檝e been taught and shows us the many ways black women influenced and engaged in social justice struggles across time.鈥

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Williams has authored articles on black power politics, the war on poverty, low-income black women鈥檚 grassroots organizing, and urban and housing policy. She also has penned two books, including 鈥淭he Politics of Public Housing,鈥 in which she explores the lives and activism of black women such as Shirley Wise.

鈥淪hirley Wise was and still is a mobilizer and spokesperson for civil rights and tenant rights. She fought for safe neighborhoods and for people to have basic quality of living, and she pushed for respect for all human beings,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淪he knew there were racial and gender politics in play and that she was being oppressed because she was a poor, black woman living in public housing. Knowing that allowed her to figure out some spaces to try and challenge that. You can鈥檛 challenge what you don鈥檛 call attention to, speak out about and know.鈥

Williams, a University of Pennsylvania doctoral graduate, also spoke of influential black women who followed in Wells鈥 and Wise鈥檚 footsteps, including Queen Mother Moore, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Goldie Baker, Johnnie Tillmon, Ella Baker and Coretta Scott King.

鈥淲hen asked what freedom meant to her, Nina Simone responded, 鈥榥o fear.鈥 Nina Simone, like so many other black women, combined her activism and her music to speak out for people,鈥 Williams said. 鈥淲e have to remember that we all stand at the intersections of multiple oppressions, and black women鈥檚 struggle has shown us that as well.鈥

鈥淣one of us can shut our mouths because the lessons ain鈥檛 dead,鈥 Williams emphasized. 鈥淭he voices of black women in history and today鈥檚 social justice struggles cannot remain silent because our silence and your silence will simply not protect you or us.鈥

Asked about ways youth can engage in social justice, Williams said education is key to having an impact.

鈥淵ou have to constantly educate yourself about history and the present, and then strategize about the campaigns or interventions that you are going to make that go hand and hand,鈥 she advised. 鈥淲hen you have conversations with others and collectively think about issues, all of that helps lead us toward a society that cares about other human beings.鈥

Along with the 小黄书 College of Arts and Sciences鈥 African American Studies program, Williams鈥 presentation was supported by the university鈥檚 Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, Office of Public Affairs, and the Department of Sociology鈥檚 Gender Studies program.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, 小黄书鈥檚 African American Studies program offers courses leading to a minor in African American Studies. For more, visit .

小黄书 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .