A. Wilberforce Williams
1865–1940

Physician, surgeon

Albert Wilberforce Williams was a prominent Chicago physician who practiced on Chicago's south side for forty-six years. He specialized in internal medicine, the treatment of tuberculosis, and heart and lung disease. He was the first African American physician to write a newspaper column on health and the first physician to focus attention on social diseases. He worked at Provident Hospital with Daniel Hale Williams, the renowned physician and surgeon who in 1893 performed the first successful operation on the human heart.

Williams served as health editor of the Chicago Defender from 1911 to 1929. The only other newspaper in the country to have a health editor at that time was the Chicago Tribune. Both papers were in the forefront of educating readers on health and hygiene issues, and both dared to refer specifically to sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid in their medical advice columns. Some of Williams's peers objected to his frank writings. When his topics began appearing, he received criticism and resistance; some readers did not like seeing what were considered private subjects discussed openly in a newspaper. Because of his persistence in writing and lecturing on these subjects, he lost his membership in one of the medical societies to which he belonged.

Urges Sensible Preventive Medicine

Williams's lectures and weekly columns covered tuberculosis, quacks and quackery, voodoo, and the effects of diet on health. Following a lecture in 1913, Williams was quoted in the Chicago Daily Tribune as saying that consumption was curable and preventable with good hygiene. In both his writings and lectures he asserted that the spread of disease could be prevented by people seeking medical advice and by early visits to medical dispensaries. To an audience at Quinn Chapel AME Church located at 2400 South Wabash in Chicago, he recommended that people avoid "darkness, dirt, dampness, spitting, poor ventilation, and the use of whisky, beer, and patent medicines," according to the Chicago Daily Defender. In March 1922 he suggested that for people of color, moving to the south was not necessarily a cure for tuberculosis. He recommended instead that patients seek medical attention at hospitals and dispensaries in Chicago. He also wrote about and taught the value of ventilation, frequent baths, fresh air, and drinking cool water.

His column was named "Dr. A. Wilberforce Williams Talks on Preventive Measures, First Aid Remedies, Hygienics and Sanitation." No subject was taboo. He announced in each article that "no cures are diagnosed and no prescriptions given" in these weekly articles. He wrote and lectured on venereal disease, on constipation, and on healthy eating habits for people of African descent. Throughout his medical career, he pointed out the negative health impacts of eating heavy meats, excessive carbohydrates, hot sauces, and condiments because of their effect on the liver and the digestive system. He recommended that condiments were unnecessary if foods were properly prepared. He said men over forty need exercise, sufficient sleep, and a well-balanced diet. He even attacked the subject of voodoo medicine and the use of potions and powders sold by peddlers with no medical credentials. "Tie-them-Down" and "Bring-Back" powders were advertised and sold to women to keep wandering husbands at home. Williams warned against using these medical self-help devices that were not prescribed by qualified physicians.

Chronology

1865

Born in Monroe, Louisiana on January 31

1887

Graduates from Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri

1894

Graduates from Northwestern University Medical School of Chicago

1894

Begins medical practice at Provident Hospital, Chicago

1902

Marries Mary Elizabeth Tibbs on June 25

1907–16

Serves as attending physician at Southside Municipal Tuberculosis Dispensary

1911–29

Serves as health editor for the Chicago Defender

1915

Writes article, "Tuberculosis and the Negro" for Mississippi Conference on Tuberculosis

1915–16

Serves as supervisor of the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium Survey

1918–19

Serves in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France during World War I, lecturing soldiers on health issues

1925

Becomes managing director, European Travel Educational Tours

1940

Dies in Chicago on February 26

William A. Evans, Chicago's first commissioner of health, was also the first health editor of the Chicago Tribune. He and A. Wilberforce Williams wrote health columns on disease prevention techniques. They encouraged people to have their blood, urine, and teeth examined before problems occurred. Some of Williams's articles were: "What Everyone Should Know about Cancer," "Disease and High Death Rates among Our Race," "Know Your Heart," and "The Leaky Heart." He never wavered from his efforts to educate the public. Eventually his views became accepted and set standards for medical and nutritional practices. In addition to writing for the Defender, he wrote an article on "Tuberculosis and the Negro" for the Mississippi Conference on Tuberculosis. It was published in the February 19, 1915 issue of the Journal of Outdoor Life, a magazine that supported an anti-tuberculosis campaign.

Williams was born in Monroe, Louisiana to Baptice and Flora Millsaps Williams. He grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where he attended grammar and high school. In 1887, he received a degree from Lincoln Institute (later Lincoln University) in Jefferson City, Missouri, and his first job was as a schoolteacher in Pierce City, Missouri. He was accepted at Northwestern University Medical School of Chicago and graduated in 1894. He also received a fellowship from the University of Chicago to study internal medicine at Harvard University. Williams served his two-year residency at Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, which was established in 1891. Initially this hospital was intended for black people only but later other races were treated there. Williams became professor of internal medicine and head of the postgraduate school medical department at this, the nation's first interracial hospital.

Williams practiced medicine at Provident Hospital from 1894 until his death in 1940. He joined the staff three years after the establishment of the hospital and remained after its founder, Daniel Hale Williams resigned in 1912. He also served as an attending physician of the south side Municipal Tuberculosis Dispensary from 1907 to1916 and as supervisor of the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium Survey of 1915–16. Williams served as a second lieutenant in the American Expeditionary Force in France (AEF) for five months during World War I. The U.S. government sent him to France to lecture on hygiene, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and personal conduct of soldiers. He was a member of the advisory board of the Chicago Local Exemption Board and chairman of the Committee of Physicians of the Red Cross Home Service Medical Section.

Williams was a fundraiser and spokesperson for the economic survival of the often-struggling Provident Hospital. In an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune of October 16, 1917 he was listed among Chicago's Negro physicians who were starting a fund to open a free dispensary at Provident. Churches in the community were encouraged to donate to the cause. Williams was an active lifetime member of the Chicago branch of the NAACP, which allowed him to work with local and national civic leaders.

Financially successful, Williams decided to become an investor and entrepreneur. To aid his business knowledge, he attended and graduated from the Sheldon Business College of Chicago in 1907. Since he and his wife loved to travel abroad, he turned that into an opportunity to become managing director of the European Travel Education Tours. He invested freely in ventures such as the Black Diamond Oil Company and the Binga State Bank. The bank seemed to be a sound investment. In an April 1921 advertisement in the Defender, the bank purported to have assets totaling $400 million. Board members included businessman Oscar DePriest who became the first black Chicago alderman and the first African American of the twentieth century to win a seat in the House of Representatives. However, Williams lost large sums of money by investing in companies that were in truth not financially sound.

A civic-minded man, Williams was affiliated with many organizations. He held several positions in the National Medical Association, including executive board member, treasurer, and state vice president. He was president of the Physicians, Dentists, and Pharmacists Association of Chicago and a delegate to its national convention. He was a lecturer for the War Work Council. He was a member of the American Medical Association., the Illinois State and Chicago Medical Societies, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the Chicago Tuberculosis Society, the American Social Hygiene Association, the Robert Koch Society for the Study of Tuberculosis, the Inter-State Postgraduate Assembly of America, and the Chicago Heart Association. He was also a member of the Chicago Fine Arts Association, the Field Museum of National History Association, Kappa Alpha Phi fraternity, the YMCA, the U.S. Civic Legion, the Frederick Douglass Center, and the fraternal Order of the Knights of Pythias, the Appomattox Social Club, and the Odd Fellows Club.

Williams was a member of the Episcopalian Church, and he was a Republican. He was listed in Who's Who of the Colored Race (1915), Who's Who in Chicago (1931), and Who's Who in Colored America (1938–40). He was an early member of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and agreed with Carter G. Woodson that the records of the Negro needed to be preserved and published. When he died his obituary listed only one survivor, his wife, Mary Elizabeth Tibbs of Danville, Kentucky whom he married June 25, 1902. He died in his Chicago home on February 26, 1940. The Journal of Negro History described him as an honored physician and "a force for social uplift."

REFERENCES

Books

Who's Who in Chicago. Chicago: Marquis Co., 1931.

Who's Who in Colored America, a Biographic Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of Africans Descent in America. 5th ed. Brooklyn: Thomas Yenser, 1938–40.

Who's Who of the Colored Race; a General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent. Vol. 1. Chicago: Frank Lincoln Mather, 1915.

Periodicals

"A. Wilberforce Williams." The Journal of Negro History 25 (April 1940): 262-63.

"Calls Consumption Curable." Chicago Daily Defender (3 September 1913). Chicago, Ill.: Defender Co., microforms.

Chicago Daily Defender (31 July 1909–August 1927). Chicago, Ill.: Defender Co., microforms.

City of Chicago. Municipal Tuberculosis Sanatorium Research Laboratory. "Collected Obituaries: A. Wilberforce Williams" Chicago Daily Tribune (1872–1963) 27 February 1940, p. 8.

"The Origins of Soul Food in Black Identity: Chicago, 1915–1947." American Studies International 37, February 1999. Studies from City of Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, 1925.

                                       Gloria Hamilton