John Alfred Williams (December 5, 1925 - July 3, 2015) was an African-American author, journalist, and academic. His novel The Man Who Cried I Am was a bestseller in 1967.

Life and career

Williams was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and, after naval service in World War II, he graduated in 1950 from Syracuse University. His novels, which include The Angry Ones (1960) and The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), are mainly about the black experience in white America. The Man Who Cried I Am, a fictionalized account of the life and death of Richard Wright, introduced the King Alfred Plan - a fictional CIA-led scheme supporting an international effort to eliminate people of African descent. This "plan" has since been cited as fact by some members of the Black Community and conspiracy theorists.

In the early 1980s, Williams, and the composer and flautist Leslie Burrs, with the agreement of Mercer Ellington, began collaborating on the completion of Queenie Pie, an opera by Duke Ellington that had been left unfinished at Ellington's death. The project fell through, and the opera was eventually completed by other hands.

In 2003, Williams performed a spoken-word piece on Transform, an album by rock band Powerman 5000. At the time, his son Adam Williams was the band's guitarist.

Personal life

He married Lori Isaac in 1965 and moved from Manhattan to Teaneck, New Jersey in 1975, as it was a place that "would not be inhospitable to a mixed marriage".

Honorable recognitions

In 1970, Williams received the Syracuse University Centennial Medal for Outstanding Achievement, in 1983 his novel !Click Song won the American Book Award, and in 1998, his Safari West won the American Book Award too. On October 16, 2011, he received a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Book Awards.

Death

Williams died on July 3, 2015, in Paramus, New Jersey, aged 89. He had Alzheimer's disease.

Legacy

Williams' personal papers, including correspondence and photographs, are archived in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University.

Selected bibliography

Novels

• The Angry Ones (1960)
• Night Song (1961)
• Sissie (1963)
• The Man Who Cried I Am (1967)
• Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light (1969)
• Captain Blackman (1972),
• Mothersill and the Foxes (1975)
• The Junior Bachelor Society (1976)
• !Click Song (1982)
• The Berhama Account (1985)
• Jacob's Ladder, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press (1987)
• Clifford's Blues (1999)

Non-fiction

• Africa: Her History, Lands and People (1963)
• This Is My Country Too (1965)
• The King God Didn't Save: Reflections on the Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1970)
• The Most Native of Sons: A Biography of Richard Wright (1970)
• Flashbacks: A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing (1973)
• If I Stop I'll Die: The Comedy and Tragedy of Richard Pryor (1991)

Further reading

• Cash, Earl A. (1975). John A. Williams: The Evolution of a Black Writer. New York: The Third Press.
• Muller, Gilber H. (1984). John A. Williams. Boston: Twayne Publishers.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]