Hosea Williams

Hosea Lorenzo Williams was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician. He may be best known as a trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr.s inner circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King depended on Williams to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in myriad protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice. King alternately referred to Williams, his chief field lieutenant, as his bull in a china closet and his Castro.

Williams was born in Attapulgus, Georgia, a small city in the far southwest corner of the state in Decatur County. Both of his parents were teenagers committed to a trade institute for the blind in Macon. His mother ran away from the institute upon learning of her pregnancy. At the age of 28, Williams stumbled upon his birth father, Blind Willie Wiggins, by accident in Florida. His mother died during childbirth when he wasyears old. He was raised by his mothers parents, Lelar and Turner Williams. He left home by the age of 14.

Source: Wikipedia