He spent 20 years in Africa, primarily in and around the Congo Free State, and is best known for his efforts to publicize the atrocities committed against the Kuba and other Congolese peoples by King Leopold II's Force Publique.

[6] Later in life he would collect artifacts from the Congo, specifically those of the Kuba, and bring them back for this room, as evidenced by his letters home, such as "[i]t was on the first of September, 1890 that William H. Sheppard addressed a letter to General Samuel Armstrong, Hampton, From Stanley Pool, Africa, that he had many artifacts, spears, idols, etc., and he was '...saving them for the Curiosity Room at Hampton'".

[8]) He met Lucy Gantt near the end of his time at Tuscaloosa Theological Institute, and the two became engaged but did not marry until ten years later.

[9] Sheppard was ordained in 1888 and served as pastor at a church in Atlanta, but did not adapt well to the life of an urban black in a heavily segregated area of the Southern United States.

Frustrated by the vague rationale in the rejection letters he received, Sheppard took a train to Baltimore, where he asked the chairman in person and was politely told that the board would not send a black man to Africa without a white supervisor.

[11] Samuel Lapsley, an eager but inexperienced white man from a wealthy family, intervened to offer his support, enabling Sheppard's journey to Africa.

Leopold was eager to make inroads into his newly acquired territory, both to begin the process of "civilizing" the natives and to legitimize his rule.

While Lapsley was on a trip to visit fellow missionary–explorer George Grenfell, Sheppard became familiar with the natives' hunting techniques and language.

[22] In the late 19th century, King Leopold II started to receive criticism for his treatment of the natives in Congo Free State.

They would report the crimes they saw, and later, with the help of Roger Casement, would form the Congo Reform Association (CRA), one of the world's first humanitarian organizations.

[23] In January 1900, The New York Times published a report that said 14 villages had been burned and 90 or more of the local people killed in the Bena Kamba country by Zappo Zap warriors sent to collect taxes by the Congo Free State administration.

[28] When Mark Twain published his King Leopold's Soliloquy five years later, he mentioned Sheppard by name and referred to his account of the massacre.

The case went to court in September 1909, and the two missionaries were supported by the CRA, American Progressives, and their lawyer, Emile Vandervelde, who was a Belgian socialist.

[23] However, it is likely that the case was decided in favor of Sheppard as a result of international politics; the U.S., socially supportive of missionaries, had questioned the validity of King Leopold II's rule in the Congo.

Many of the documented cases of cruelty or violence were in direct violation of the Berlin Act of 1885, which gave Leopold II control over the Congo as long as he "care[d] for the improvements of their conditions of their moral and material well-being" and "help[ed] in suppressing slavery.

[32] On the issue of the collection's scientific value, Jane E. Davis of the Southern Workman journal wrote that "it not only meets the requirements of the ethnologists, but those of the artist as well.