THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210413
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARSHA GILBERT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Growing up in the 1940s in Orangeburg, S.C., photojournalist Cecil J. Williams was a witness to legally segregated hospitals, schools, churches, theaters, elevators, barber shops, gas stations and funeral homes.
Today at noon in the Mills E. Godwin Jr. Center Ballroom at Norfolk State University, Williams, now 56, will conduct the second day of his lecture and slide presentation on the four decades he spent chronicling the civil rights movement. He will discuss the 11 years he spent researching his photographic autobiography ``Freedom and Justice.''
He remembers being 12 years old when he was run out of the courthouse for taking a picture of a sign that read ``Colored Restroom.''
``Growing up in an area where that was accepted said to me that I wasn't respected as a first-class citizen,'' said Williams. ``I knew the way we were treated was wrong. It seemed like it wound never end.''
At the age of nine, with a hand-me-down Kodak Baby Brownie camera, Williams started capturing on film the battle between civil rights and racism.
``What interests me most about photography is the impact that photography and film-making have,'' Williams said. ``So much of what we become can be impacted on by that medium.''
Because of his early interest and skill in photography, by age 15 he was a freelance photographer for the Associated Press and publications like the Afro-American and the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper. He earned $15 for a picture that went on the cover of Jet Magazine.
Soon after graduating from Claflin College in 1960 Williams was in the forefront of the movement as a photographer for The Crisis, the newspaper of the NAACP, and as the official photographer for the National Conference of Black Mayors.
``I have always thought of the ongoing struggle not as a conflict between black and white people, but rather as a conflict between justice and injustice,'' said Williams.
Many of his most telling photographs are of unknown people protesting, marching and speaking out against racial oppression, which Williams likens to apartheid.
``It is a continuing struggle,'' said Williams, who owns Williams Photography Studio in Orangeburg, S.C. ``The Confederate flag is still over the capitol building. There is still a problem of racism.''
``There has been progress,'' Williams said. ``I was able to photograph the first black Chief Justice of South Carolina, Ernest F. Finney. This is a milestone.''
Williams has experienced his own milestones. In 1984 he ran for a U.S. Senate seat against Melvin Pervis.
``I had no money or political experience,'' said Williams. ``I received 145,000 votes and lost by 300 votes.''
This year he plans to run for the U.S. Senate again. He will compete against Strom Thurmond.
``I am a much stronger individual because of prejudice experiences,'' Williams said. ``I tried to turn them around to benefit me. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Cecil J. Williams
Photo
Cecil J. Williams took this 1959 photo of a South Carolina gas
station that excluded blacks. ``I have always thought of the ongoing
struggle not as a conflict between black and white people, but
rather as a conflict between justice and injustice,'' he said
Tuesday.
by CNB