[1] Francis was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 26, 1870 (or April 26, 1869),[2] moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1887, without having recognized scholastic qualifications.

[1] Francis was appointed chief clerk of the Northern Pacific's legal department, becoming one of the highest-ranking African-American employees of any business in Minnesota, practicing law privately as well.

[1] He left Northern Pacific to take over the solo law firm of his friend and mentor, Frederick McGhee, after his 1912 death.

[2] In 1914, he gained George T. Williams, a Pullman porter, a record $3,000 judgment for malicious prosecution by his employer, but it was overturned on appeal.

[2] He is reported to have said that while black lawyers could gain some white clients at that time, racial barriers prevented them from reaching their full potential.

[2] "The solution of the whole problem … is simple justice; a recognition of the fact that the rights of the humblest citizen are as worthy of protection as those of the highest."

In 1919, Francis gave a speech on Reconstruction and race relations, encouraging the audience to, despite the unfairness, "make up your mind to improve your condition and do it".

[1] Around then, his wife helped earn women the right to vote, and wrote the state anti-lynching bill after a particularly brutal lynching episode in Duluth in June 1920.

In 1924, the couple bought a two-story house on Sargent Avenue in the Groveland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, and faced vicious and threatening opposition from some white residents.

[2] They are buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville,[4] William Francis having first had a funeral at the Pilgrim Baptist Church in St. Paul on August 11, 1929.