Jamye Coleman Williams (December 15, 1918 – January 19, 2022) was an American activist for social reform and justice, a scholar, and a leader within academe and the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.).
[2] Williams credited her mother with inspiring her career: "I often tell people that if my mamma had the advantages they provided me, she really would have been a power" she told a reporter in 2005.
"[3] In 1938, Williams graduated with honors in English from Wilberforce University (the oldest private African American college in the U.S.).
Her dissertation—A Rhetorical Analysis of Thurgood Marshall’s Arguments Before the Supreme Court in the Public School Segregation Controversy—was published by the Ohio State University in 1959.
[7] In 1984, Williams was appointed editor of The AME Church Review, an established literary journal, and served in that position until 1991.
Williams was a mentor for other women in the church, supporting Vashti McKenzie’s election as the first woman to serve as an A.M.E.