Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110257
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Long
As one of only three black law students at the University of Virginia in the late 1960s, Williams camped out so often on the doorstep of then-University president Edgar Shannon to protest the lack of blacks in the school that he and the courtly Shannon came to call each other by first names.
The result, Williams said, was that the school abandoned its practice of recruiting students mostly from the state's private schools and began Looking to the public schools for undergraduates.
By age 30, after a meteoric academic rise to become an assistant dean of the Harvard Law School, Williams became head of the civil liberties and civil rights division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office.
"But I wanted to practice law," Williams said.
So he left the fast track and returned to his native Southside Virginia to start a private practice.
"When you take something from a community, you owe something back," said Williams, 45, the son of a lawyer in Danville who grew up knowing "just about every black lawyer in the state of Virginia."
Now Williams is about to take on a problem that has been stumping leaders, politicians and the law enforcement community across the nation in recent years: drugs.
Gov. Douglas Wilder has appointed Williams to chair his Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The 17 other members of the council also are new.
"We won't have any continuity," Williams acknowledged. "But I think it provides us a great deal of opportunity to make new definitions and take a fresh approach to the problem. I don't know that we've really tried to define what this committee is supposed to do.
"We should start by looking at education, enforcement and treatment. I use all three of those broadly because they are all important" in fighting the drug problem, he said.
The war on drugs has become a common theme in political rhetoric. A central theme of Wilder's campaign for governor last year was his promise to "be my own drug czar."
Williams' new post is a high-profile one, but he resists some of the most popular solutions offered by leading anti-drug officials.
When he talks about stronger enforcement against drugs, Williams says that does not mean he supports expanded death penalties for drug-related crimes or even a system of longer jail sentences for drug offenses - two staples of Wilder's campaign platform.
"You can understand the frustration people have with the problem. But I don't know that the death penalty is going to act as a deterrent," Williams said. "I don't know that there is a monolithic way of treating these crimes. A lot of that talk is related to the public posturing over the drug problem."
Instead, Williams says the council will consider how to improve communication between law enforcement agencies and look for ways to increase money for local drug enforcement.
Williams also is interested in treatment for drug abuse - an item that is frequently missing from political formulas for solving the problem.
"We owe it to our society to see if there are treatment programs that work well."
Williams said he has "a suspicion" that treatment is available for those with jobs and health insurance, but that the problem of drug abuse may be more chronic among the unemployed with no access to treatment.
"I want to see which programs work and see if that can be duplicated for people who are unemployed and can't get treatment," Williams said.
Even though there is fierce competition for funding among state agencies strapped with budget cuts, Williams is optimistic that "if we put together some significant statistics" he can win approval of drug and alcohol treatment for the indigent.
Williams said the best tool against drug abuse may be "the spirit" he sees across the state in people who want "to do something to help. You would be surprised at the number of people who have come up to me . . . and said, `Tell us what we can do to help.' "
Martinsville is not the capital of drug crime in Virginia, and Williams found that topic dominated the news conference where his appointment was announced.
"The questions were sort of, `Why aren't you in Richmond?' " Williams recalls.
"Martinsville and Henry County very definitely have problems with drugs. I've got clients who have rental property they have pulled off the market in frustration because drug pushers try to rent it and turn it into crack houses."
The point is, we have drug crimes. Maybe we don't have as many or as serious a problem as the urban areas, but maybe that means we can teach them something about handling the problem."
The other surprise for Williams was the controversy his appointment stirred politically, because he replaces Attorney General Mary Sue Terry in the post.
A number of reporters questioned whether Wilder's removal of Terry, who has made anti-drug programs a hallmark of her term in office, was a slight of his one-time potential rival for governor. Terry is widely seen as a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1993.
Wilder denied that the move was a slap at Terry.
Williams is chagrined. He and Terry say they are friends and political allies.
"I've been a longtime supporter of hers," Williams said. "We are old friends. I was surprised by the spin" that the story received.
Terry said her friendship with Williams goes back 17 years.
Williams has served on appointed boards under the past four governors, including three terms on the Board of Visitors of Virginia State University.
"When the governor called and asked me about this appointment, I asked him how much time it would take," Williams said. "But when a governor asks me to serve the state, I try to say yes."
by CNB