(Which happens to be his actual name, not a position)
Well. I’m pleased to announce that in response to my article about White students visiting “Books-a-million” and buying books as they left the store that a Black “Long-time Educator” friend of mine was reminded about a local event in Monroe that was part of “The Your Museum Cares Project” which was held in 2022, at the NELA African-American Museum to promote literacy for Youth.
According to an online article, once the youth arrived at the event, each of them were given one free book from the museum to begin their own private book collection, and they were also given a $10 gift certificate to purchase a second book from Books-a-million Bookstore. At the end of our conversation, my “Long-time Educator” friend posed a baffling question. His question was, “Why is that we do not see bus loads of Black students and/or parent car loads of children visiting Books-a-million to buy books?” As one of the popular cliche says, “Let that marinate on your brain for awhile!”
Now, on to this week’s Black Pioneer! Chancellor Williams was born on December 22, 1893, in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Chancellor and his family were a part of the first groups of Colored People of “THE GREAT MIGRATION” from the South to the North that began around 1910 in the United States, and lasted well into the years of the Negro Civil Rights Movement. In 1910, the Williams family chose to relocate to Washington, D.C., hoping that things would be much better there than they were in the South. Young Chancellor and his siblings attended, and later graduated from Armstrong Technical High School.
After graduating high school, he worked a job, so he could save up money to attend college. In 1930, Chancellor enrolled in Howard University. Within the next 5 years, he had acquired his Bachelor’s and his Master’s Degree in Education! Chancellor’s first job as an Educator began in 1935 when he accepted a position as Administrative Principal for the Cheltenham School for Boys, in Maryland. Later, in 1939, he accepted a teaching position in the Washington, DC, public school system.
Around 1941, mainly because of WWll. Chancellor began working for the U.S. Government, in an administrative capacity. However, following the war, he returned to his “Alma Mater, Howard University.” Chancellor is widely known for a book that he wrote and had published in the 1970’s, “The Destruction of Black Civilization : Great Issues of a Race,” in which the book received an award from The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, in 1972. Sadly, on December 7, 1992, Chancellor Williams departed this earthly realm, at Providence Hospital in Washington, DC., at the ripe age of 98!
