Reggie Williams (AIDS Activist)

Reggie Williams (April 29, 1951 – February 7, 1999) was an American AIDS activist, who spread awareness to communities of color. Williams was a leading force in the development of the National Association of Black and White Men Together and the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention.

Reggie Williams was born on April 29, 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Williams became an X-ray technician and moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s. Williams continued to work at Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he noticed high number of men falling ill to AIDS, formerly known as Gay-Related Immune Disease (GRID). He later moved to San Francisco in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was in full effect.

In 1985, Williams began organizing in San Francisco to address the AIDS epidemic spreading throughout his community. Williams noticed the efforts aimed at preventing HIV infections were not culturally compatible with black gay men, and other men of color. He began by initiating the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention, (NTFAP), with the help of Steve Feeback, and Phill Wilson. In 1986, Williams was diagnosed HIV positive at the age of 35.

Later in life, Williams moved to the Netherlands to avoid the stigma and discrimination towards men with HIV/AIDS. He moved there with his partner, Wolfgang Schreiber. Schreiber was prohibited from entering the United States at the time because of his HIV positive status. The two lived in Amsterdam for five years before AIDS took Williams' life on February 7, 1999, at age 47. February 7 is now celebrated as the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

"I have known many people who are diagnosed with this disease, and other terminally ill people through my profession, who hang onto this little piece of paper they call “hope” in their hand. A lot of them die with it still clutched in their hand. My hope lies in the future. I don’t believe there will be a cure for me. I can take AZT or whatever drugs are developed to prolong my life for a time, but my hope is for finding a vaccine to prevent children of the future from getting HIV." -Reggie Williams (1987)

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