An encouraging, frank view of Minnesota & MIssissippi

The following column originally was published by the APG of East Central Minnesota Newspapers in July and August 2025. This includes the APG Statewide newspapers, Faribault Daily News,  Aitken Independent Age, Press&News,  Morrison County Record,   Northfield News,  Union Times, l SunThis Week, SunPost,  SunCurrent,  SunSailor & Waconia Patriot.

 

An encouraging, frank view of Minnesota and Mississippi

 

As people start to think about a new school year, T. Williams’ new book explains that he and other Black students had to wait until November to start school in 1945. That’s because they were needed to pick cotton in Mississippi. Williams offers a fascinating, nuanced and encouraging view of American and Minnesota history over the last 90 years. Despite staggering challenges, he’s an optimist who believes, “My experience proves that a single person can intervene and put into motion significant change on behalf of their community.” He hopes that this book will inspire many others to do the same in years to come.

T & Mary Lou Williams, courtesy Mn Historical Society in T’s book Rewind

Williams has held many significant jobs in Minnesota, including being named by then Gov. Wendy Anderson as the Minnesota Department of Corrections first ombudsman, director of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, a founder of the Urban Coalition, elected member of the Minneapolis Board of Education, Humphrey Institute senior fellow and many more.

All this from a man whose father was a sharecropper in Mississippi, was the seventh of eight children, and who grew up facing daily danger – as when he tried to collect from a newspaper customer who screamed the “N-word” and threatened him.

William provides many details of his experience as a Black man in Minnesota, Maine, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi over the last 90 years.

For example, the school year in Mississippi always started the day after Labor Day for white students. But for Black students, school starts were delayed until the cotton was picked. In 1945, a good year for cotton, the school year for Black children didn’t start until Nov. 27. They were needed as cotton pickers.

“T” – Age 8 in Mississippi – photo courtesy of T Williams in book, Rewind

Williams served in the Army at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. While he was there, Black entertainers were hired by nearby clubs – but Black soldiers were not allowed to see them perform.

Another example: He mentions that “well into the 1950’s, Black students were not permitted to live in University of Minnesota dorms.”

This is not an “Aren’t I wonderful book.” Williams describes a number of mistakes that he made, such as getting into a car crash when he was a taxi driver in Chicago or challenging a teacher who gave him a smaller part in a play than he felt he deserved. “I never again challenged a teacher.”

One of his key messages is the importance of family support – even if your family has little money. He recalls, “The values and commitment to community I learned from my family provided me with a solid foundation for the challenges that lay ahead.”

Williams often praises his wife, Mary Lou, formerly an Augsburg University faculty member, their three children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

He concludes with nine lessons:

1. Value an inclusive process. Find seats at the table for all who want to be a part of the solution.
2. Look for potential allies where you least expect to find them. Once you’ve found such an ally or two, look for those places where you can establish common ground with them, and be creative about how you might forge avenues for collective action on tackling issues of common concern.
3. Dissatisfaction drives change, and confrontation can be a useful tool.
4. Make maximum use of existing resources, including homegrown institutions.
5. Build (and work hard to maintain) bridges across racial, cultural, and socioeconomic divides.
6. Networking is a critical tool. Value it and use it often.
7. Patience is more than a virtue; it’s a necessity.

8 Change can be a slow and tedious process, especially if it is to be sustained. Know the difference between the capacity to confront and the capacity to implement and respect it.

9. Be optimistic! Your optimism can have a positive, contagious effect that can actually be the difference sometimes between project success or failure.”

The title is “Rewind: Lessons from Fifty Years of Activism” (Minnesota Historical Society Press.) It’s co-authored with Minnesota writer David Lawrence Grant. Reading parts of it with youngsters would be a valuable “back-to-school” activity. Williams hopes that the book will inspire others. He succeeds.

T

Joe Nathan has been an award-winning Minnesota public school educator and PTA president. He’s a senior advisor at the Center for School Change and welcomes responses, joe@centerforschoolchange.org