Romeo M. Williams

Romeo Marcus Williams (June 4, 1919 – August 16, 1960) was an American civil rights attorney who organized large-scale student protests against segregation in Marshall, Texas. He was also a junior partner of Dallas, Texas civil rights attorney, William J. Durham, who served as lead counsel on two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, Sweatt v. Painter (with famed civil rights attorneys Robert L. Carter and future U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall), and Smith v. Allwright.

Williams was also a U.S. Army Air Force officer and trained fighter pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group, best known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Early life, family Williams was born on June 4, 1919, in Marshall, Texas's predominantly African American Sunny South neighborhood. He was the son of Milton Williams Sr., owner of the Peoples Funeral Home, a funeral establishment founded in 1923 and have been located across the street from the historically black college and university Bishop College. Williams was also the son of Josie P. Campbell Williams, East Texas's first African American female funeral director. Williams Sr and his wife also founded six other funeral homes as well as the Peoples Funeral Service Insurance Company.

Nonetheless, Williams moved to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the now-defunct Lincoln University School of Law, graduating with a juris doctor on June 6, 1949. Co-founders included C.W. Asberry, L.A. Bedford, C.B. Bunkley Jr., W.J. Durham, Kenneth F. Holbert, D.H. Mason, Robert Rlce, L. Clayton River, U. Simpson Tate, and J.L. Turner Jr.

Between March and August 1960, Williams helped organized large student courthouse marches and sit-ins of F. W. Woolworth and bus station lunch counters. At the courthouse, firemen used water hoses on many students, arresting students on charges of unlawful assembly.

Death, Desegregation in Marshall, Texas On August 16, 1960, Williams defended students in Marshall, Texas who were arrested while participating in civil rights sit-ins and demonstrations. While driving two student clients, Mae Etta Johnson and Bernice Halley, back to their boarding house, a railroad switching engine struck Williams' automobile, immediately killing Williams and Johnson and permanently injuring Halley.

Williams' family funeral home held Williams' funeral at Marshall's New Bethel Baptist Church. Bishop College President Milton K. Curry performed the eulogy. Williams was interred on his family's plot at Powder Mill Cemetery in Marshall.

On December 14, 1960, Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed and dismissed all convictions against the students. Soon after, Marshall desegregated all public facilities.