Beginning as a teenager, Motley published a column in the African-American oriented Chicago Defender newspaper under the pen-name Bud Billiken.

[2][4] Later, Willard traveled to New York, California and the western states, earning a living through various menial jobs, as well as by writing for the radio and newspapers.

In 1940 he wrote for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers Project along with Richard Wright and Nelson Algren.

A work of gritty naturalism, it concerns the life of Nick Romano, an Italian-American altar boy who turns to crime because of poverty and the difficulties of the immigrant experience; it is Romano who says the famous phrase: "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!

But those more kindly disposed to his work, and there were plenty, admired his grit and heart....Chicago was more complicated than just its racial or sexual tensions, and as a writer his exploration was expansive...."[12] Motley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

[4] After his death, his adopted son, Sergio Lopez, said, "He let this illness go too long before getting proper medical treatment.

[14] The parade travels through the city's Bronzeville, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighborhoods on the south side.