Race, Justice and What We Can Do

As we confront racial injustice in the US, the question arises: How can each of us make a real difference? Retired Judge Ann Claire Williams has experienced the inequalities of American society—but also seen its progress. She tells how change can happen; it all starts with the individual.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day, we just
need to look for and share it. Here's something Good

(00:27):
for today. At a difficult moment in our country's history,
it's sometimes hard to think about what's good when the
fault lines in our society are being exposed and we
all worry about our collective future. It's critical to hear
from leaders who can offer a wise perspective, informed by
years of experience and hard one insight. Judge and Claire
Williams is one of those leaders, and she knows firsthand

(00:49):
about inequality, about the progress that's been made and the
steps we all need to take. She saw her parents
face the barriers of color. Although both had college degrees
from historical black colleges in the forties, they faced intense discrimination.
Her mother couldn't become a licensed teacher because of her
race and instead had to work at a juvenile home

(01:10):
for twelve years. Her father, a political science and psychology major,
couldn't find a job because he was black, his only option,
like many other well educated black men of his time,
was to drive a bus. He did that for twenty years.
Judge Williams, who grew up during the Civil Rights era
and was inspired by Martin Luther King, had a different
career path. She began as a teacher in the inner

(01:32):
city public schools of Detroit and then went on to
get a law degree. Ultimately, she served as a federal
judge for three decades, starting with her appointment by Ronald
Reagan to the U. S. District Court. She later became
the first person of color to serve on the U. S.
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a court that
sits just below the Supreme Court. Along the way, Judge

(01:55):
Williams has taken every opportunity to help others up the ladder.
She helped just the beginning a pipeline organization, as well
as the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago and the
Public Interest Fellowship Program for Equal Justice Works, among many others.
She sits on many boards, including is Civics and the
n double a CP Legal Defense Fund, and for the

(02:18):
past twenty years she's worked on rule of law issues,
working with women judges across the world and particularly in Africa.
Now as a retired judge, she served as of counsel
to an international law firm and leads its efforts to
advance rule of law in Africa. I spoke to Judge
Williams about what we can all learn from her experience
in this very difficult moment, and here's what she had

(02:40):
to say. So in these times, in these times, I
think about my father. I think about the twenty years
that he drove the bus, knowing that he was capable
of doing other things, knowing that he had been a
staff sergeant in the military and served in World War Two,
owing he was facing this racial discrimination, and yet he

(03:04):
did what he had to do. And after twenty years,
he applied for a position as a supervisor and was
told by one of the white bosses. He was not confident,
and he decided he had to have a change, and
he was angry. And what he did he channeled that
anger and put it in a better place. He decided

(03:27):
that he wanted to be a school teacher, so he
went back to get a further degree in education. And
it wasn't until Daddy started at Wayne's State that it
hit me college degree, bus driver, bus driver in college degree.
And I said to him, Daddy, how could you stand it?

(03:47):
How did you drive that bus for twenty years with
a college degree? And he said he did what he
had to do. He wanted to make the world better
for me and my sisters, that we would have opportunities
that he didn't have, that no one could take away
his college degree, and that being a bus driver was good, honest,

(04:07):
decent work. So whenever I've faced roadblocks in my life,
I always go back to my parents and what it
must have been like for them to face that kind
of discrimination, and yet they continue to move forward. Not
everybody realizes that you have to build bridges, that you

(04:27):
have to reach out to people who are different than
you are. We have become so isolated and so divided
and have forgotten I think sometimes that we're all human beings,
were all Americans. We all may have different stories, but
we're all people. I mean, I believe that every person
can make a difference. I really believe that that it

(04:50):
only takes one person to really begin or to start
a movement and to help advance change. One person can
make a difference. You get an idea, you get inspired, you,
you look at your sort of network of family and friends,
you find somebody else who believes in it in a

(05:11):
cause like you do. So this this whole issue of
racial understanding, it's something that has to be dealt with
very directly, in my opinion, and there are a lot
of books on it, there's a lot of information on it.
But really building bridges is one human being to another,
reaching out to someone different than you are, and being

(05:34):
understanding and having emphasies for that person's situation. We've come
a long way, but we still have a long way
to go, and we all, each of us, have to
dig deeper into our hearts and minds and souls to
bring back a fairer and more just society for all

(05:55):
of us, because we are, after all, all God's children,
and we all have that obligation, whatever our color, whatever
our age. We are so grateful to Judge Williams for
helping us recognize what is in front of us a
terrible injustice, a shameful loss, and then to see beyond

(06:15):
this moment to what must come next. Her words can
help guide us in the work we are all called
to do. Racism has to be dealt with directly and
Our task is to build bridges that will create the
equitable society we all deserve and want to see. So
here's something hopeful for today. As Judge Williams shows us,

(06:35):
every individual can make a difference, and progress starts within
each of us. It's our obligation to dig down deep
within ourselves to find the courage to speak up and
to act. And the moment society will change for the
better is the moment when each of us believes that
we can be the one to help bring about that change.

(07:07):
Thank you for listening, and please share today's something Good
with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co
author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app store. Care Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I Heart Radio Have

(07:27):
a Great Day. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.