Hazel Browne Williams

Hazel Browne Williams (February 9, 1907 – July 7, 1986) was an American educator. She was the first full-time African American professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the first African American awarded emeritus status there.

Early life and education Hazel Browne was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 9, 1907. She was the only child of John and Effie Moten Browne. While at Lincoln High, she served as the first woman sponsor major of the school's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC).

Williams studied English at the University of Kansas and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1927, and continued at the university to earn a master's degree in English in 1929. Williams received her Ph.D. from New York University in 1953; her doctoral thesis was titled "A Semantic Study of Some Current Pejoratively Regarded Language Symbols Involving Negroes in the United States: An Approach to Intergroup Conflict Through a Study of Language Behavior". She was recognized as the first Black instructor in the Kansas City School District to hold a Ph.D.

Williams became an exchange teacher through the Fulbright Program in 1956, teaching English at a girls' secondary school in Vienna. Her career was recognized by the University of Missouri in 1977 with the Thomas Jefferson award.

Williams died on July 7, 1986, and was buried at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.