Contributor

Junius Williams

Noted attorney, educator, musician and author of the book "Unfinished Agenda, Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power".

Meet Junius Williams
Junius Williams is a nationally recognized attorney, musician, educator and independent thinker who has been at the forefront of the Civil Rights and Human Rights Movements in this country for decades. His life in the Movement in the South and the North has been chronicled in the Civil Rights History Project, a collaborative initiative of the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. His is one of eleven interviews shown nationally on C-SPAN. http://www.loc.gov/collection/civil-rights-history-project/about-this-collection.

His speeches have energized young and old alike in places like the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in New York, Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, NJ, and colleges throughout the country.

As the youngest President of the National Bar Association, the oldest and largest organization of black attorneys in the US, he spoke at the United Nations, advocating for genuine democracy on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. (The NBA paper was adopted by the UN and publicized in seven different languages for international consumption.) He was listed as one of the “100 Most Influential Blacks in America” in Ebony Magazine, ran for Mayor of Newark, and now teaches leadership and community organization at Rutgers University Newark, based on lessons outlined in his new book, Unfinished Agenda, Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power. He sings, plays Blues harmonica, and celebrates with audiences the rich cultural heritage of American music, from the Negro Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, and Gospel, to Hip Hop.

The common thread in this rich life shared in his speeches is his passion for Justice. Junius uses stories, candid commentary, humor and his music to inspire and empower his audiences. He takes his listeners from the Civil Rights Movement in the South to the Black Power Movement in the North; from the election of the “first Black Mayors”, to current multi-racial urban leadership. He challenges his audiences to understand the causes behind youth violence; the myth behind the “War on Drugs”; and “school reform” that benefits some but not all. Junius Williams is a dynamic speaker who inspires diverse audiences to think and grow taller by considering a new paradigm for solving urban problems.