The Way I See It: Professor remembers a pupil, a colleague, a trailblazer

The Way I See It: Professor remembers a pupil, a colleague, a trailblazer

Linda Faye Williams ’70, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, died Oct. 16 of complications related to diabetes. Linda was one of the first two African-American students to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice after it desegregated in 1964.  (Theodore Henderson ’70, now living in Honolulu, was the other. Raymond Johnson, a mathematician and colleague of Linda’s at Maryland, matriculated as a graduate student in 1964 and was the first black to receive an advanced degree from Rice, in 1969.)  The university charter had officially barred nonwhites from admission since it opened in 1912.

DAVIDSON

Linda and I both arrived on campus in 1966 — I, from graduate school; she, from an all-black high school in the East Texas community of Lovelady. It was my privilege to have Linda in my political sociology course in 1969. Her term paper on racial voting patterns in East Texas was 50 pages long, extraordinarily well-written and researched. I still have it in my files. 

Pursuing a double major in English and political science, she made the president’s honor roll several semesters and obtained a highly competitive Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, which helped support her while earning a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. 

Linda developed a career both as a teacher and research director.  She taught at Brandeis, Cornell, Howard and the University of Maryland, and for several years was associate director of research at the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, D.C., often appearing on national TV evening news as an analyst of political trends. She also served as director of the Institute for Policy Research and Education at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and as a research associate at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

Throughout her career, Linda was concerned with making universities friendly to diverse student groups.  One of her recent projects examined the extent to which curriculum and pedagogy in core courses in the social sciences at the University of Maryland promoted ”a more welcoming and inclusive campus community for all.” She took pride in mentoring African-American students, a number of whom are now on university faculties, and she was honored with a special mentoring award at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Philadelphia.  Some of her graduate students called themselves ”Linda’s academic children.”

Linda’s most recent work, ”The Constraint of Race: Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America” (Penn State University Press: 2003), received three prizes in 2004: the Michael Harrington Award, the W.E.B. DuBois Award presented by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the Best Book on Policy and Race Award presented by the APSA Section on Race, Ethnicity and Politics. Among her other works are ”From Exclusion to Inclusion: The Long Struggle for African-American Political Power” (Praeger: 1992), a collection of essays coedited with Howard University sociologist Ralph Gomes, her husband.

A notable theme in the eulogies to Linda at memorial services in Maryland and in Smith Grove — a small community near Lovelady where she and her family had attended church — was her warm and unassuming personality, her commitment to family and students and her impassioned support of gender and racial justice.

In early October, President Leebron announced the 40th anniversary celebration of Linda’s and Theodore’s first year at Rice, which will occur on campus

Feb. 20. She was expected to play a prominent role in the day’s events. While that is precluded by her untimely death, the gift of her life’s work will undoubtedly be celebrated in her stead.