E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP Papers, 1940s-1986

Purchase, Langdon Manor Books LLC, 2018 with subsequent gift from Bert Hansen, 2019.

The E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

E. Winston and Ina D. Williams NAACP Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Catherine Grandgeorge, 2018.

Chicago NAACP and labor union leader.

Emile Winston Williams II was born in Moss Point, Mississippi on June 23, 1906. He attended high school in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to Chicago in 1925. In Chicago, Williams attended Cortez Peters Business College and worked as a waiter at the Hyde Park Hotel from 1925 to 1928, and at the Palmer House from 1929 to 1954. He served in the Navy during World War II.

Williams helped to organize the Federated Hotel Waiters Union Local 356 in 1937 and became its executive vice president in the 1960s after it merged with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Local No. 1. He also served as a representative for the Chicago Dining Room Employees Union, Local No. 25, the vice president of the Chicago Dining Room Employees, Cooks & Bartenders Union, Local No. 42, and as treasurer of the Chicago Dining Room Employees Credit Union. In 1956, Williams joined the board of the Chicago Southside branch of the NAACP. In addition to serving as president from 1971-1974, he was treasurer from 1984 to 1988. In 1986, he won the NAACP’s James H. Kemp Award.

Williams had one son, Sgt. Emile Winston Williams III, a police officer with the Chicago Police Department, who died in 1969. E. Winston Williams II died in Chicago on May 12, 1989.

Ina Dorothy Wells Williams was born in Illinois in 1909. Ina and Winston were likely married around 1925 or 1925. She was an active member of the Chicago Southside branch of the NAACP, working with the Women’s Auxiliary group. Ina died in Chicago in 1995.

Papers of Chicago NAACP and labor union leader E. Winston Williams, who served as president of the Chicago Southside NAACP chapter from 1971-1974. Materials may have been gathered by Williams’s wife, Ina D. Williams, who chaired the Executive’s Table for various NAACP Women’s Auxiliary benefit teas and played an integral behind-the-scenes role in Williams’ administration. Collection includes photographs, clippings, programs, brochures, and correspondence documenting the activities of the NAACP chapter and Williams’s involvement with Chicago labor unions.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: NAACP Materials, 1962-1975 Box 1 Series 2: Events, 1963-1981 Boxes 1-3 Series 3: Personal Material and Ephemera, 1944-1984, bulk 1959-1981 Box 3 Series 4: Photographs, 1940s-1986 Box 3 Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1957-1979 Boxes 4-6

• Names
  • A. Philip Randolph Institute.
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- Chicago Southside Branch -- Women's Auxiliary.
  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Chicago Branch.
  • Williams, E. Winston, (Emile Winston)
  • Williams, Ina Dorothy
• Subject
  • African American labor union members
  • African American leadership -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century
  • African American women -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • African Americans -- Civil rights -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century
  • Chicago
  • Clubs and Organizations
  • Labor unions
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Social Action
  • Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Correspondence
• Geographic CoverageChicago (Ill.) -- Race relations