[2]: 169 The Big Five first became active in the early 1960s, confronting poverty and discrimination in Hunters Point, filling the void left by weak religious leaders.
The Big Five are identified in a 1996 oral history as Julia Commer, Bertha Freeman, Osceola Washington, Elouise Westbrook, and Rosalie Williams.
Commer was credited as "one of the community leaders who had fought to turn the 134-acre slum ... into a new environment of garden homes and sparkling schools" in a 1978 San Francisco Chronicle article describing the demolition of the temporary housing built to house World War II shipyard workers at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.
During this time, her husband George Williams, who was a World War II veteran (Tech Sergeant), worked at the Mare Island shipyard as a laborer, and the family moved to Floyd Terrace Apartments which was naval housing.
Dr. Coleman was a general practitioner who served the predominantly black community of Bayview, often making house calls and forgiving the medical bills of less fortunate families.
She became active in the Bayview Hunters Point District, aligning herself with the community's “Big Five,” Elouise Westbrook, Oceola Washington, Julie Commer, Bertha Freeman, and Rosie Lee Williams.
Her work in the community escalated over the years, serving on the Joint Housing Committee, Poverty Council, Butchertown Homeowners and Tenants Association, and the Model Cities Commission.
Ruth Williams’ testimony before the United States Senate Appropriations Committee in 1970 led to the release of 30 million dollars of Housing and Urban Development funds to Bayview Hunters Point residents.
She organized a fundraiser at Candlestick Park, and the largest soul and gospel show ever performed in Bayview Hunters Point, soliciting the assistance of such outstanding artists as musical director and composer, H. B. Barnum, Tina Turner, Larry Graham, the O’Jays.
Williams’ produced a telethon for high blood pressure featuring national celebrities such as Angie Dickenson, Charlie Dearcopp, Robert Guilliame, Chaka Kahn, and others.
On December 7, 1995, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors renamed the facility The Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theater.
(City and County of San Francisco Resolution No.1027-95) Ruth Williams had played a leading role in promoting the arts and culture of the Bayview-Hunters Point and preventing the demolition of the historic structure in the 1960s after a riot.
A crowd gathered at the scene on that unseasonably sweltering day, and by the evening, at least 200 had people began to wander down Third Street, throwing bottles and rocks at police cars and smashing the windows of businesses that were not Black-owned.
In the wake of the shooting, Williams was successful in obtaining the funds to hire African-American architect Harry Overstreet to renovate and restore the landmark building.
8 — long before San Francisco City Hall and Ghirardelli Square, largely due to Ruth Williams’ efforts to protect the space.
Death After several years battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells, Ruth Williams passed away at Stanford Hospital, at the age of 63 on January 27, 1995.