Charl Ormond Williams

Charl Ormond Williams. , Charl Ormand Williams, an Arlington native, began teaching in a one-room school house in Shelby County when she was sixteen. She followed her sister, Mabel C. Williams, as Superintendent of Public Instruction for Shelby County, serving in that office from 1914 to 1922. While superintendent, she succeeded in convincing local and state politicians to pass bond issues to improve educational facilities and worked closely with the Rosenwald Foundation to build numerous high-quality public schools for African Americans. A leading proponent of equal education for all races, she appealed to women to make education a major priority. During her tenure, Shelby County Schools achieved national prominence, and Williams became an activist and national leader in education from the 1920s onward. , In June 1920, Cordell Hull appointed her vice-chairman of the National Democratic Committee, becoming the first Tennessee woman to do so. In Nashville that August, she was chosen by Governor A. H. Roberts to lead the combined suffrage forces as chairman of the ratification effort. She stood by Governor Roberts as he affixed his signature to Tennessee's ratification papers on August 24, 1920., Remaining active in Democratic politics, Charl Williams had a close friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt autographed a photograph to her "In memory of our fight for real democracy.-1920," which she cherished.,

We can't make one false step now. Not alone our interests are at stake, but the interests of all American women."

, In 1921 the National Education Association elected her as the youngest, first Southerner, and first classroom teacher to serve as president and was afterward hired by the NEA as its chief lobbyist for federal funding for public education. During a long distinguished public service career in Washington, D.C., she also served as president in 1935 of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, the first educator to hold the presidency. She also served as vice president of Phi Beta Kappa and was named one of twelve women "competent to hold the position of President of the United States.", The papers of Charl Ormond Williams are in the manuscript division of the Library of Congress.