Freddye Harper Williams (January 9, 1917 – 2001) was an American newspaper columnist, management analyst, and state legislator in Oklahoma. She served five terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She was a Democrat. [1] She represented the 99th district. [2] [3]
Fresdye Harper was born in Bay Springs, Mississippi to Frederick G. Harper and Mittie Jo Harper. Her family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and then Oklahoma City when she was a child. [4] She graduated as the valedictorian from Douglass High School. [4] She married Calvin Williams. They had two sons and a daughter. [4] [1]
She began her career as a newspaper columnist for the Black Dispatch and then worked for Tinker Air Force Base for some 30 years. She served on Oklahoma City's Board of Education from 1975 to 1980 and then served five terms in the Oklahoma House of Representatives until 1990. She was also involved in numerous civic organizations. [4] [1]
At one point she was fired from her Tinker Air Force base job because of her work at the Black Dispatch newspaper and its owner Roscoe Dunjee who was associated with Communist organizations. [5]
She was inducted into the Oklahoma Afro-American Hall of Fame in 1985. [4] The National Collegiate Honors Council awards a Freddye T. Davy Student Scholarship.
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Who is Who in the 42nd Oklahoma Legislature". Digital Prairie. Oklahoma Department of Libraries. p. 46.
- ^ "State Yellow Book". Monitor Publishing Company. December 11, 1990 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Historic Members". Oklahoma Legislature. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "Freddye H. Williams". The Oklahoman. October 15, 2001.
- ^ Jr, Clarence Mitchell (October 25, 2022). The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr., Volume VI: The Struggle to Pass the 1960 Civil Rights Act, 1959–1960. Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780821447468 – via Google Books.
- 1917 births
- 2001 deaths
- People from Bay Springs, Mississippi
- Democratic Party members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives
- School board members in Oklahoma
- Women state legislators in Oklahoma
- African-American women journalists
- 20th-century American journalists
- 20th-century American women journalists
- American columnists
- 20th-century African-American politicians
- 20th-century African-American writers
- 20th-century African-American women writers
- 20th-century American women politicians
- African-American state legislators in Oklahoma
- 20th-century members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives