Former El Paso Mayor Bert Williams went officially unrecognized and almost forgotten for the civil rights activist he was in the early 1960s – until today.
The El Paso City Council awarded him the city’s Star on the Mountain Award for his contributions to racial equality and particularly for his leadership in persuading City Council to approve the first anti-discrimination ordinance of its kind in Texas and possibly in the nation.
“In June of 1962, Williams, then a young lawyer and an alderman on the El Paso City Council, sponsored the city’s desegregation ordinance that outlawed discrimination in El Paso motels, hotels, theaters and restaurants, two years before the National Civil Rights Act of 1964,” said city Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who nominated Williams for the city award.
A city alderman at the time, Williams went on to serve as mayor from 1971 to 1973.
Former University of Arkansas head basketball coach Nolan Richardson said had it not been for Williams and that ordinance, Texas Western University (now UTEP) Coach Don Haskins would not have been able to recruit the black members of his team from northern states for Texas Western's championship run in 1966.
“Those kids wouldn’t have come if they couldn’t go to restaurants and the movies,” Richardson said, referring to the segregation in El Paso and other Southern cities that often kept African-Americans out of public accommodations.
Williams, he said, made an enormous difference in El Paso by doing the right thing before any other city.
Richardson, who grew up in El Paso, said Williams befriended him and in 1961 invited him to lunch at a popular restaurant.
As Richardson suspected would happen, Williams was told, “We can’t serve him,” and the two of them were turned away.
“I turned black, and he turned red,” Richardson said. “On the way home, he was gritting his teeth, saying this is not right.
That incident, he said, may have been what prompted Williams to push for an anti-discrimination ordinance the following year.
“People don’t realize what this man did for the city and for the South,” Richardson said after the award presentation.
When he went to the mike, Williams, 81, made no mention of his accomplishments in office but complimented the members of City Council and City Manager Joyce Wilson for the progress they have made.
Describing a recent lunch outing with city Reps. Steve Ortega and O’Rourke, he said, “I shouldn’t believe we were in a restaurant and a politician, Steve Ortega, pick up the tab.”
Before stepping away, Williams added, “I’m so glad to see women on the City Council.”
Mayor John Cook addressed Williams saying, “I want to thank you for standing up for what’s right.
“So often, politicians take what’s popular and try to make it right. You took what was right and tried to make it popular.”
Cook said Nestor Valencia, a former head of the city planning department and executive and administrative officer to three mayors, told him recently that it was Williams who proposed that the city build the Zaragosa international bridge in 1972 immediately after federal passage of a law allowing cities to build international ports of entry.
At the time, the Zaragosa Bridge was a dilapidated two-lane crossing, and when the new bridge was finally build until the late 1980s, it came just in time for the explosion of maquiladora factories and warehouses along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Zaragosa Bridge came on line just as the Bridge of the Americas was declared too dangerous for truck traffic, and that allowed El Paso and Juarez to become home to hundreds of new industries, Cook said.
“Bert Williams is and always will be a giant in the history of El Paso,” Cook said.
Asked afterward why so little has been made of his role in the passage of an anti-discrimination measure that was ahead of it’s time, Williams said, “You have to understand, passing an ordinance of that magnitude didn’t make a lot of people happy.”
Here is the rest of the Williams biography that O’Rourke read before presenting the award to Williams:
“Former El Paso Mayor Bert Williams, 81, grew up in south El Paso. He attended San Jacinto Elementary school and graduated from El Paso High School in 1942. He was named El Paso High School’s outstanding ex in 1972. …
“Bert Williams is a World War II and Korean War veteran. He was named to the All Star Softball team in 1960 and is past president of the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1950 from UTEP where he captained the basketball team in his senior year. He earned a doctorate of jurisprudence in 1956 from St. Mary’s University. He was assistant city attorney from 1957 to 1961. He served on the City Council from 1961 to 1963 and as mayor from 1971 to 1973.
”As mayor, Williams built the first police station, had the Franklin Canal fenced and, in 1971, directed the city attorney’s office to file a lawsuit against Asarco. The lawsuit was settled in 1972. The lawsuit required Asarco in conjunction with the city to monitor and test soil, ambient air and house dust samples, among other stipulations. That action led to the closing of Smelter town, a private community next to Asarco.
”Williams, now retired, said of his time as Mayor of El Paso and City Representative that “there is nothing like being in a position to help. We had an impact on the city as I watch it now.”
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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30, or 630-6622.
