Mrs. Williams' Civil War

Since we are currently commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War it is of interest to take a look back at the centennial commemorations here in New Jersey. 

On June 9, 1960, New Jersey established a Civil War Centennial Commission to manage the state’s participation in the forthcoming events. The New Jersey commission, along with organizations from other states, was invited to Charleston South Carolina for an April 11-12, 1961 national conference on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war. 

When the National Civil War Centennial Commission (NCWCC) discovered that a member of the New Jersey commission, former assemblywoman Mrs. Madeline Williams, was African-American, the New Jerseyans were advised that she could not stay in the Francis Marion Hotel, headquarters for the event, and probably should not even show up there at all, as it would be “very embarrassing to all concerned.” She could, it was suggested, book a room in a segregated hotel elsewhere in Charleston if she wished.

The insult to Mrs. Williams, coming at the dawn of the civil rights struggle, elicited a strong response from the New Jersey commission, which pointed out that the whole event was being sponsored and funded by the federal government, which did not allow segregation, and that her treatment “abrogate[d] the fundamental concepts of human decency.” 

New Jersey’s Senator Clifford Case and Representative Hugh Addonizio raised the matter in the legislative arena. In the end the federal government moved the NCWCC meeting to the un-segregated federal venue of the Charleston Navy Base, where it was held with Mrs. Williams in attendance, while the South Carolina Commission held its own meeting at the Francis Marion hotel. It was not an auspicious beginning for the centennial, but the Jerseyans had made their point.

For more on the New Jersey Civil War Centennial Commission, see the book "New Jersey's Civil War Odyssey," available for purchase from the NJ Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.  http://www.njcivilwar150.org/