Frederick B. Williams

Frederick Boyd Williams (23 April 1939 – 4 April 2006) was a religious leader of national importance in the United States. As Canon of the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, New York from 1971 to 2005, he led an influential congregation, the first in the nation to establish a programmatic response to AIDS. A patron of the arts, he provided the first home for the Boys Choir of Harlem. He was a co-founder of the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI), which coordinated 90 congregations to develop 2000 units of housing and retail space. While earning a doctorate from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, he led a congregation that worked for civil rights and social justice, both in the United States and Africa.

Born 23 April 1939 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Williams grew up in the South. He earned a bachelor's degree at Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a second bachelor's degree at General Theological Seminary in New York. Later he earned a doctorate from Colgate Rochester Divinity School.

Williams was one of a generation of activist ministers who were important in New York. He started as a parish priest in Washington, DC and Inkster, Michigan.

From 1971-2005, Williams led as Vicar and Rector at the Church of the Intercession, an Episcopal church in Harlem, New York at the border of Washington Heights. His leadership brought the church to deal with new issues of the AIDS crisis, as well as longstanding issues in community development, social justice and international actions in Africa.

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