VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — The city of Vicksburg is remembering a World War II veteran who was the city’s first black independent licensed master plumber and an activist who worked to make made life better for people in the community even after he became blind.
The family of Tommie Lee Williams Sr. gathered last week to dedicate a state historical marker in his honor placed at the intersections of Jackson and Walnut streets in Vicksburg, news outlets reported.
Williams served in World War II as a corporal in the signal corps of the “Buffalo Division,” the marker touts. The Buffalo Division was an African American division that served in Italy during the war at a time when the U.S. military was still segregated by race. According to the marker, he graduated from Alcorn College, now Alcorn State University, in 1948 and later became the city’s first black independent licensed master plumber. He’s noted for training other African Americans to work in the industry, WJTV-TV reported.
Williams lost his sight in 1967 but continued to be an active member of the community. In 1975, Williams founded We Care Community Services near where the marker is established. The agency provides GED and tutoring programs, job training, a food pantry and other services. He also led efforts to integrate public schools, get people registered to vote and to get streets paved and utilities to all Vicksburg neighborhoods.
Dr. Adena Williams Loston, his daughter, said the ceremony comes one year after she started efforts to get her father’s public service recognized, the Vicksburg Post reported.
“This has been a labor of love,” she said.
State Rep. Oscar Denton, at the dedication ceremony, described Williams as a trailblazer.
“He was a man of distinction; he was a man of accountability,” Denton said. “He had incredible fortitude, because anytime you had an impairment like he had and did what he’s done, that is something we can take great measure in doing. He paved the way.”
“This is really something I will cherish for the rest of my life. It’s beautiful,” Williams’ wife, Frances, said after the ceremony.
Loston said her father was a spirited man who lived passionately.
“He was a true Renaissance man,” Loston said, adding that her father “reinvented himself to whatever the issue was at hand.”
Williams died in 2014.
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