 |
Elisabeth Williams-Omilami | |
|---|---|
 Williams-Omilami, 2011. | |
| Born | Elisabeth Williams February 18, 1952 [1] Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Other names |
|
| Occupations |
|
| Organization(s) | Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless (Director) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Hosea Williams Juanita Terry Williams |
| Family | Yolanda E Favours (Daughter) Porsha Williams (Niece) |
Elisabeth Williams-Omilami (born February 18, 1952) is an American human rights activist and an actress.
Born in Atlanta, Williams-Omilami is the daughter of activist Hosea Williams and Georgia State Representative Juanita T. Williams. Williams-Omilami young life was spent with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. [2] After graduating from college, she created the People's Survival Theatre, producing a season of five shows per year.[ citation needed ] People's Survival Theatre continued to produce shows long after Williams-Omilami's journey to New York City when her husband Afemo Omilami received a scholarship to New York University. In New York, Williams-Omilami worked as an arts administrator and executive assistant.[ where? ] Williams-Omilami directed and acted as much as she could, supporting her family as her husband's career grew. In 1985, Williams-Omilami left New York to return to Atlanta.[ citation needed ] While in Atlanta Williams-Omilami continued to perform on stage and in film and television.[ citation needed ] Williams-Omilami graduated from Hampton University with a BA in Theatre. [1]
|
Williams-Omilami's parents brought her along on Civil Rights marches and movements across the South since she was young. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Williams-Omilami attended boarding school to Wasatch Academy in Utah where she was the only African-American student.[ citation needed ] Williams-Omilami had worked for over 15 years in the background of her father's Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless efforts, [3] [1] and upon his passing in November 2000 became the organization's CEO, expanding the organization from a budget of $200,000 to over $1.5 million.[ citation needed ] Williams-Omilami worked to provide programs that would meet the basic needs of the working poor and homeless along a continuum of care leading to self-sufficiency. Williams-Omilami expanded these programs from four months to year-round services and established medical clinics, clothing distribution, barber and beautician services, children's educational programs, and home delivery of over 22,000 dinners per year.[ citation needed ] Williams-Omilami has spoken and toured worldwide for several international relief efforts in places like the Philippines, where she has founded and operates a school for the underprivileged children of Mindanou,[ citation needed ] and Haiti and Uganda, where she sponsors several orphanages.[ citation needed ]
Williams-Omilami has been acknowledged many times for her humanitarian service.[ citation needed ] Honorary membership induction into Zeta Phi Beta sorority, [4] A Georgia State Senate Resolution in recognition of her community service,[ citation needed ] Atlanta Business League 100 Women of Influence,[ citation needed ] For Sisters Only,[ citation needed ] Women In Film Humanitarian Award,[ citation needed ] Secretary of State of Georgia Outstanding Citizen,[ citation needed ] State of Georgia Goodwill Ambassador,[ citation needed ] YWCA Women of Achievement Academy,[ citation needed ] Burger King Urban Everyday Heroes,[ citation needed ] Kraft Community Service;[ citation needed ] Southern Christian Leadership Conference Women Drum Major for Justice,[ citation needed ] T. D. Jakes Phenomenal Woman,[ citation needed ] Daughters of Isis Community Service Award,[ citation needed ] the Emory University M.L.K. Community Service Award[ citation needed ] and The National Conference of Black Mayors Fannie Lou Hamer Unsung Heroine Award.[ citation needed ]
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(February 2016) |
Williams-Omilami founded of one of Atlanta's earliest theatre companies People's Survival Theater, [1] as well as the "Summer Artscamp", providing arts programming for economically challenged youth for over 7 years.[ citation needed ] Williams-Omilami is a playwright has written several plays, one of which is There Is A River In My Soul. [1] She is a past member of both the Georgia Council For The Arts [1] and the Fulton County Arts Council [1] and is a passionate advocate for the arts to be instituted as permanent part of society.[ citation needed ] She is an actress and has performed at the Alliance Theatre in A Christmas Carol and in early 2002 in Left Hand Singing at the Jewish Theatre of The South.[ citation needed ] She can also be seen in the HBO made-for-television movie Boycott, [1] In the Heat of the Night [ citation needed ] and the award-winning I'll Fly Away . [1]
Attapulgus is a city in Decatur County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 454.
Doris May Roberts was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades of television and film. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951.
Annette Louise Greenfield Strauss was an American philanthropist and politician who served as the 54th mayor of Dallas. The Annette Strauss Artist Square in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas is named in honor of her. She was the second female mayor and the second Jewish mayor of Dallas. She was also the first woman elected to the post in her own right; Harrison served as a caretaker for the last months of Wes Wise's term after Wise resigned to run for Congress.
Alpha Gamma Delta (ΑΓΔ), also known as Alpha Gam, is an international women's fraternity and social organization. It was founded on May 30, 1904, by eleven female students at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, and thus it is the youngest member of the Syracuse Triad of North American social sororities that also includes Gamma Phi Beta (1874) and Alpha Phi (1872). Since its founding, Alpha Gamma Delta has, as of December 2021, initiated over 201,000 members and installed 199 collegiate chapters and more than 250 alumnae groups.
Jasmine Chanel Guy is an American actress, singer, dancer and director. She portrayed Dina in the 1988 film School Daze and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne on the NBC The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, which originally ran from 1987 to 1993. Guy won four consecutive NAACP Image Awards from 1990 through 1993 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the show. She played Roxy Harvey on Dead Like Me and as Sheila "Grams" Bennett on The Vampire Diaries. She also played the role of Gemma on Grey's Anatomy.
Young Harris College is a private Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college in Young Harris, Georgia, United States.
Hosea Lorenzo Williams was an American civil rights leader, activist, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician. He is best known as a trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr.'s inner circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King depended on Williams to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in myriad protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice. King alternately referred to Williams, his chief field lieutenant, as his "bull in a china shop" and his "Castro." Vowing to continue King's work for the poor, Williams is well known in his own right as the founding president of one of the largest social services organizations in North America, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. His famous motto was "Unbought and Unbossed."
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. (ΦΒΣ) is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as charter members. The fraternity's founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serve the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose. The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa, and a collegiate chapter outside of the United States. It is the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a historically African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta (ΖΦΒ), which was founded on January 16, 1920, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., through the efforts of members of Phi Beta Sigma.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. (ΖΦΒ) is a historically African American sorority. In 1920, five women from Howard University envisioned a sorority that would raise the consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of scholastic achievement, and foster a greater sense of unity among its members. These women believed that sorority elitism and socializing overshadowed the real mission for progressive organizations. Since its founding Zeta Phi Beta has historically focused on addressing social causes.
Mita Vashisht is an Indian actress. Known for her work on screen, stage and television, she has played a wide range of roles. Her most prominent appearances includes; sci-fi television series Space City Sigma (1989-1991), Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein, Swabhimaan, Alaan (Kirdaar) to Trishna in Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Jethi Maa in Kaala Teeka to film roles with a wide spectrum of directors with different cinema styles.
Lugenia Burns Hope, was a social reformer whose Neighborhood Union and other community service organizations improved the quality of life for African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia, and served as a model for the future Civil Rights Movement.
Zeta Phi Eta (ΖΦΗ) is a national professional fraternity in Communication Arts and Sciences founded on October 10, 1893. It is recognized as the oldest professional fraternity for women, though membership is now co-ed.
Evelyn Gibson Lowery was an American civil rights activist and leader.
Osceola Marie Adams, known professionally by the stage name Osceola Archer, was one of the first Black actresses to appear on Broadway in Between Two Worlds in 1934. Speaking of Adams' decade-long role as director of some three dozen productions at the Putnam County Playhouse, actor Carl Harms noted she was likely also the first African-American director of summer stock.
The Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) Project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was a voter registration civil rights initiative conducted from 1965 to 1966 in 120 counties in six southern states. The goal was to recruit white college students to help prepare African Americans for voting and to maintain pressure on Congress to pass what became the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King announced the project at UCLA in April 1965, and other leaders recruited students nationwide.
Frank Rodriguez, professionally known as Frank Ski, is an American DJ, journalist, philanthropist, radio personality, and public forums host. He also was a Baltimore club and house music artist who recorded as solo, as well as a part of the group 2 Hyped Brothers & a Dog in the 1990s. From 1998 to 2012, and again from 2017 to January 2019, he was the host of the Frank and Wanda Morning Show alongside co-host Wanda Smith on the Atlanta urban contemporary radio station WVEE. He now hosts another morning show called The Morning Culture alongside Jade Novah and J.R. Jackson.
Afemo Omilami is an American actor.
Pearl Cleage is an African-American playwright, essayist, novelist, poet and political activist. She is currently the Playwright in Residence at the Alliance Theatre and at the Just Us Theater Company. Cleage is a political activist. She tackles issues at the crux of racism and sexism, and is known for her feminist views, particularly regarding her identity as an African-American woman. Her works are highly anthologized and have been the subject of many scholarly analyses. Many of her works across several genres have earned both popular and critical acclaim. Her novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997) was a 1998 Oprah's Book Club selection.
Pearlie Craft Dove was an African-American educator. Dove taught at Clark College and helped to improve the college's Education Department. Under her leadership, Clark College became the first private Historically Black College in Georgia to be accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Later, she aided in the consolidation of Clark College with Atlanta University in order to begin Clark Atlanta University. She was also elected to work at the policy making level of the Association of Teacher Educators (AATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
