ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607050019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
It's hot - really hot - and racial tensions are about the same as when he left in 1977, but Oscar Williams is readjusting to life in Alabama.
The former director of leadership and development in Virginia Tech's Center for Volunteer Development returned to his home state two months ago. During his two decades in the New River Valley, his litany of accomplishments included being vice president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and chairman for the Montgomery County Human Relations Council. He also ran for a seat on the Montgomery County School Board last fall.
Williams said he'd forgotten the sweltering Alabama heat - "It's been in the 100s lately," he said.
"I'm readjusting to the style of life - the skepticism people have because of the color of their skin."
Tuskegee University (previously known as Tuskegee Institute) "had been trying for two years to get me to come," Williams said. "And finally, with the changes in the extension focus at Tech, it just seemed like the time."
His titles at Tuskegee, where he earned a master's degree two decades ago, are as diverse as his past occupations.
He is a district supervisor for the cooperative extension program and covers 12 middle and western counties in what he called the "black belt" of Alabama. Williams also raises money for the program, which he said will send all professors from the university out into communities.
And, he's assisting the university's provost with the continuing education program for adults.
"I'm almost busy!" he joked.
Williams left Alabama to earn his doctorate in education from Virginia Tech and stayed to eventually become a spokesperson for racial issues in the New River Valley.
From Ku Klux Klan marches to questions about police harassment, Williams used his position as president of the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP to initiate discussion about racial tensions.
Last year, as chairman for the Montgomery County Human Relations Council, Williams organized a forum for people angered by the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Maurice Taylor. Police were trying to serve papers on Taylor for breaking his probation when he pulled out a BB gun in a Blacksburg drugstore.
His time here, Williams said, gave him a chance to hone his interpersonal skills, something that will come in handy in Alabama.
"The racial divisions are deeper than in the New River Valley," he said. "A lot of folks, they say no, they can't change ... My experience there [in New River] has emphasized more for me that things can change."
Williams has seen that positive change in the reconstruction of his childhood church, Little Zion Baptist, located about 200 miles from the university.
The church was one of more than 30 predominantly black churches set afire in the past few months. Scores of volunteers - white and black - from across the country have come together to rebuild the church.
"Interestingly enough, [the church members] are learning to work with people different from them. They've learned to work across racial divides," he said.
Technically, Williams is on a 14-month leave of absence from Virginia Tech, and could return to Virginia.
"I have a particular fondness for New River Valley and the people there," he said. "I intend to come back and visit."
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Williams.by CNB