Willis E. Williams recipient of 2004 Client Community Service Award
May 5, 2004 Media Release
(Raleigh, NC) – The client community of Legal Services of North
Carolina has awarded the 2004 Client Community Service Award to
Willis E. Williams of Jamesville, NC.
 |
Willis Williams (r) receives
2004 Client
Community Service Award from Sharon Greig. |
Williams received the award during the biennial 2004 Legal Services Statewide
Conference in Durham on April 27.
He is the first recipient receive the award, which
honors a legal aid client in North Carolina who has provided extraordinary
and dedicated service to the equal justice community.
The presentation was made by Sharon Greig, Secretary of the Legal Aid of North Carolina
Clients Council, a LANC advisory committee, whose mission is to educate
and empower poor and low-income citizens regarding rights, responsibilities and
available resources necessary for them to achieve economic, political and social
justice.
“Willis Williams has served low-income people in so many ways over the
years,” said Greig at the Legal Service Banquet. “His
accomplishments on behalf of the poor are almost too numerous to enumerate.
In addition to his leadership in reviving the Clients Council, he has
served in leadership roles with NC Smart Growth, the NC Resource Center, the NC
low Income Housing Coalition and the NC
Justice and Community Development Center.”
Williams, a disabled Vietnam veteran and the son of a sharecropper,
received his early education during the segregated era of the fifties and
sixties.
He graduated from NC A & T
State
University with a BS in Chemistry, served in the Air Force during the
Vietnam Conflict, and worked as a chemist in New York,
New Jersey and California.
He moved back to Martin County in 1970 and has
become one of the most successful community activists and civil rights leaders
in North Carolina.
In 1971 Williams played a major role in the integration of the Martin
County Schools System to ensure that Black teachers were retained within the
school system.
Later he helped to redistrict the all white Board of Education to create
seven districts to ensure Black representation on the Board to represent the
55/45% ratio county population.
In 1990 Williams brought legal actions against Jamesville, Williamston,
Robersonville and Martin County and was successful in ensuring that
Blacks are represented on each unit of government.
At the state level he has been instrumental in challenging an array of
social injustices in the field of education and political policies.
“Willis is so deserving of recognition as a model of dedicated, volunteer
service on behalf of the people of North Carolina,” noted Greig, “ and the
Clients Council is proud to honor him as the first recipient of this award.”
The LANC Clients Council established the Client Community Service Award
in 2004 to recognize a legal aid client or low-income community leader in North
Carolina who has provided extraordinary and dedicated service to the equal
justice community and to organizations that promote access to justice for
low-income people.
Selection criteria for the award includes: service to the justice
community; demonstrated leadership to advance low-income people; and significant
volunteer efforts to empower low-income people and remove legal barriers to
economic opportunity in North Carolina.
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free
legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal
access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity.
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CONTACTS:
George R. Hausen, Jr.
Executive Director, Legal Aid of NC, Raleigh, NC
919-856-2564
Mary Hedgepeth
Clients Council Coordinator, Legal Aid of NC, Rocky Mount, NC
252-972-2100
Dock Kornegay
Director, Public Relations & Development, Legal Aid of NC,
Raleigh, NC
919-856-2564
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Mission Statement
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that
provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in
order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers
to economic opportunity.