He was the organizer and first director of the Hampton Institute Creative Dance Group, the first national touring company composed of college students.
Williams' persistence, a trait that enabled him to complete several visionary projects during his lifetime, allowed him to recover and pull himself through this rough time.
He believed that athletic and social games, track and field meets, as well as other rhythmic movement activities served as a tool for self-improvement and development.
In 1917, Williams organized annual physical education demonstrations in which the students and faculty at the Hampton Institute performed drills, gymnastics, and dances for the public.
In 1930, Williams attended the Harvard University Summer School of Physical Training, earned his master's degree, as well as took dance classes.
Williams' background as an athlete served as inspiration for this work as he used the movements from sports such as boxing and shot-putting, as the basis of his choreography.
In 1937, the company went on a southern tour in April and performed at the major black colleges - Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and North Carolina A&T.
During the winter, they performed at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, high schools in New Jersey, the YM-YWHA's Theresa L. Kaufmann Auditorium in New York, and the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem.
Some of the works that were performed included: Dis Ole Hammer – Water Boy, Mama Parah, which involved Roberts doing West African movements on stilts, Wyomami, a work that dealt with African marriage customs, and The Fangai Man, which centered on the West Indian Obeah man.
They abruptly stopped, however, when America was drawn into World War II, and many of the men dancing at Hampton had to leave school to defend their country.
[3] The Southern Workman (1917): an article Williams published in Hampton's monthly journal that dealt with his ideas concerning the importance of movement in the lives of young people.