Avon N. Williams, Jr.

Avon N. Williams, Jr. is a Tennessee historical marker in Nashville, Davidson County.

Davidson Co, Avon N. Williams Campus of TN State Univ. on the north side, facing Charlotte,Nashville, TN

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A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Avon N. Williams, Jr., was an attorney, statewide civil rights leader, politician, educator, and a founder of the Davidson County Independent Political Council and the Tennessee Voters Council. In 1950, as a cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, he and attorneys Z. Alexander Looby and Carl Cowan filed and successfully litigated McSwain v. Board of Anderson County, Tennessee, the first public school desegregation case in the state. Assisting in every school desegregation case statewide except Shelby County, he was counsel for the plaintiff intervenors in the Tennessee State University / University of Tennessee at Nashville merger suit. In 1979, under federal court order, UTN merged with TSU. Williams was elected to the state legislature in 1968, becoming the first African-American state senator from Nashville to serve as a member of the Tennessee General Assembly. He represented the 19th district for more than 20 years, serving as a member of the 86th through the 96th General Assembly of Tennessee.

TodayHistorical map

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Historical map archives, georeferenced via Allmaps

Historical maps covering this location

1901 · Nashville (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1903 · Greenbrier, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1932 · Nashville, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1950 · Complete map of Nashville and suburbs (Historical map archives, georeferenced via Allmaps)
1952 · Nashville West, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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