Chancellor Williams
| Chancellor Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 22, 1893 Bennettsville, South Carolina |
| Died | December 7, 1992 (aged 98) Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. |
| Pen name | James Williams |
| Occupation | Writer, Historian, Sociologist |
| Nationality | America |
| Subject | Egyptology |
| Literary movement | Afrocentrism |
Chancellor Williams (December 22, 1893 – December 7, 1992) was an African-American sociologist, historian and writer. He is noted for his work on African civilizations prior to encounters with Europeans; his major work is The Destruction of Black Civilization (1971/1974). Williams remains a key figure in the Afrocentric discourse. He is among historians who asserted that Ancient Egypt was predominantly a black civilization.
Williams was born on December 22, 1893, in Bennettsville, South Carolina, as the last of five children. His father had been born into slavery and had grown up to gain freedom and voting after the American Civil War. His mother Dorothy Ann Williams worked as a cook, nurse, and evangelist. The family suffered after Democrats regained power in the state legislature in the late 19th century and passed bills disfranchising blacks, as well as imposing racial segregation and white supremacy under Jim Crow. Williams' innate curiosity about racial inequality and cultural struggles, particularly those of African Americans, began as early as his fifth-grade year. Encouraged by a sixth-grade teacher, he sold The Crisis, published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and The Norfolk Journal and Guide, as well as reading them and using their recommended books to direct his studies.
Years later, he was quoted in an interview as saying:
"I was very sensitive about the position of black people in the town... I wanted to know how you explain this great difference. How is it that we were in such low circumstances as compared to the whites? And when they answered 'slavery' as the explanation, then I wanted to know where we came from."
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