Homecoming Services

Mr. Robert Jeffrey Williams Sr. , Age 64, Randallstown, Maryland
Transitioned Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Born January 31, 1955, Washington D.C.
Morgan State University Graduate Class of 1978
Life Member Iota Phi Theta Fraternity
Gamma Omicron Omega Graduate Chapter
Father, Brother, Son, Righteous Man, Friend

Family Hour Wake & Viewing
4:00 pm - 8:00 pm Thursday, August 1, 2019
Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services
8728 Liberty Road
Randallstown, Maryland, United States 21133


Funeral Service
10:00 am Friday, August 2, 2019
Vaughn C Greene
8728 Liberty Road
Randallstown, Maryland, United States, 21133

Final Resting Place
National Harmony Memorial
7101 Sheriff Road
Hyattsville, Maryland, United States
20785
Following Services Friday, August 2, 2019

When I was a rising sophomore at then Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland in the Fall,1974. I became engaged in the battle that the Student Government Association deemed vital to the survival of Morgan State College. The battle for university status. It seemed the entire collective base of the students, professors, and the administrative staff was fighting this battle for Morgan State's survival.

The state of Maryland had consistently disrespected Morgan State College. The had the audacity to even open a University in Baltimore County providing that institution with university status. It was clear that the state had its eyes focused on dissembling the historically black colleges in the state. The clearly showed financial favoritism to the white schools in Maryland. They held Towson State College higher in status than either Morgan or Coppin. They virtually ignored Bowie State College. When you looked towards the Eastern Shore, Salisbury College was held in higher esteem than Maryland State College. Those white politicians who controlled the bankrolls of university and college funding slighted each and every black state college.

It was the intention of Maryland to slice up our black historical institutions into tiny satellites that would become divisions of the University of Maryland. We fought that battle successfully and won the university status for our beloved Morgan State University. However, let's understand this the battle for Morgan State University's survival isn't over. Back in the 1970s', 80s' and 90s' the idea that the brick and mortar institutions will eventually go the way of shopping malls and become extinct was not even imagined.

Yet, it's 2019 in our historically black colleges and universities and the within the next quarter of a century the real possibility exists that our brick and mortar institutions will not be the primary source of delivering education to our students by 2044. It is going to be imperative that today's college administrators have detailed plans for a diverse transformation of how a college education will be delivered. I cannot see technology slowing down for educational facilities to catch up. The old ideas of campus life, dormitories, and brick and mortar buildings will eventually become passe. Not because of student or university disinterest but because of the growth of informational delivery services.

The President of Morgan State University, David Wilson, is engaged right now in forecasting that educational survival transformation. Each and every HBCU needs to be focused on how a college educational classroom will engage its students in 25 years or even less. You think that the world's geographic borders are small now. Just think about how small they will be when transportation technological growth exceeds the time constraints that are currently shrinking. The fact that ecological concerns will have to been aligned with instructional concerns. Where it will be significantly cheaper to be educated at homes than on college campuses. These are the concerns that are in reality major concerns that must be addressed. If the HBCU's don't address these issues and effectively forecast for them. They will no longer deliver education to the next generations of minority student. Not because of explicit racist policies but because of the economics of the newly designed educational policies and procedures.

This evening I wrote this post and expanded on it responding to Dr, David Wilson's editorial in the Baltimore Sun requesting that the University of Baltimore merge with Morgan State University and become Morgan University Downtown Baltimore. I believe that this is simply one of the first steps in ensuring the survival of Morgan State University. There will be many more decisions to be made that will create a national, and international campus for Morgan State University. It and other colleges, HBCU's just like it must become universities and colleges without borders.

The brick and mortar universities are going to be mostly nonexistent within the next quarter of a century. In order for Morgan State University to survive in the future generations of colleges and universities, it must be able to make intelligent compromises as well as intelligent alignments. The combination of a downtown university facility will benefit Morgan in both the short as well as long term. Morgan will need multiple satellite sites on the African continent, Latin American nations, the Carribean Islands and the nations of South America. These sites will not be comprised of brick and mortar but will be informational and knowledge-based delivery sites. They will allow partnering and on-site research to solve the complex problems not only in Baltimore City but across the vast terrain of the globe.

Morgan Baltimore 2 will be just the beginning of this educational transformation. If you think that a quarter of a century from now the majority of students attending Morgan will bound by a campus, you will be sadly mistaken. That’s why this idea is a sound venture. It will allow Morgan to engage more students in a non-traditional format. In order for any HBCU to survive in the new generation of learning environments, we will need to make smart future-oriented decisions. This is a smart move but the next moves over the next decade will determine the fate of brick and mortar schools like Morgan. Let’s support David Wilson’s visions for the future of our great university.

Dr. Wilson hasn’t lead us astray yet. As a matter of fact, he’s been on point 100% of the time. You know because Dr. Wilson truly understands the complexity of future educational delivery processes that are soon to be part of a new day in college educational instruction. Many of us reading my writing will be either middle-aged, elderly, or passed on by 2046. Yet the cycle of educational advances must start to accelerate in HBCU's or otherwise these institutions will evaporate from the nation. Partnering and aligning once seen as an enemy of our community must now be envisioned as a savior solution.

July 25th is a very significant date in the history of the struggle for black equality in this nation. I will talk today of two events that occurred in the 1940s', five years apart. One was the birth of a young baby boy who would only live 14 years but he would symbolize, motivate, encourage, created a profound determination to end the cruelty of Jim Crow justice in this nation. The young boy who never became a man, Emmitt Till, was born on July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents Louis Till, who was hung by his neck until he was dead in 1944 for crimes he was accused of in Italy during World Two. His mother Mamie Till Bradley was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the great migration of blacks from southern states immersed in racist bigotry.

The second event was one of the cruelest murders ever to be perpetrated by white racists in the history of this nation. On July 25, 1946, four years after the birth of Emmitt Till, four blacks individuals. two black married couples were savagely murdered by a white mob of hate-filled racists. George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcom were victims of this insane act of lynch mob justice. In the state of Georgia, in Walton County on a road near the Moore's Ford Bridge, these black citizens of this nation were viciously shot and murdered. To make the crime even more irreprehensible and vicious Dorothy Malcom was seven months pregnant with a child. According to a witness to this act of viciousness. Each victim was tied to a tree and shot at point black range with over 60 shot fired in all by this mob of white maniacs. It is also said that Dorothy Malcom's fetus was cut from her womb. Tell me now what creates an atmosphere for this type of vile race-hatred?

I mean, really? Not one white participant in this heinous was ever prosecuted in any courtroom, federal or state, for these murders as well the violation of these 4 victims federal civil rights. Although, these murders outraged many in this nation. That outrage was not enough to gain congressional support for anti-lynching legislation that was stalled by southern congressional leaders. The crime which came to known as the Moore's Ford Lynching isn't taught in the history books of our nation. It is hidden from view as are many other acts of lynchings are. This nation shields itself from these acts as it hiding them away somehow will make them disappear.

Emmitt Till's birth and the lynching at Moore's Ford Bridge have come to symbolize the essence of the battle for civil rights and equality for black American citizens. While the name of Emmitt Til, born on July 25, 1941, has become synonymous to the struggle for civil rights. The names of George W. Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, and an unnamed baby murdered on July 25, 1946, are not known to the vast black populace of our community. All of these individuals were not allowed to live out the fullness of their lives. The reason simply was being born with skins not white but black. Today, I ask that we spend just a few moments in momentary silence remembering the damaged souls of these our sisters and brothers who in their sacrifice motivated a movement of change. Even though it wasn't ever their attempt to do. They simply wanted to live but some white bigots determined another fate for each of them.

This afternoon I was in the presence of my friend of 45 years, my fraternity brother, my line brother whom I met when he was 18 years and I had just turned 20 years old when Rob Williams transitioned at 1:45 this afternoon at Northwest Hospital. I just happened to be visiting my friend when he started his final journey. I along with his mother Ms. Sylvia Williams were in the company of her son, my friend at the time of his passing.

Robert Williams was one of my very best friends in life. Rob was with me when I walked down the aisle in 1978. Rob was my sponsor when we were involved in Amway Products back in the late '70s and early '80s'. Rob was there for me when my first marriage collapsed to pull me through that difficult period in my life. Rob was there for me when I found out my oldest son had a disabling birth disorder. Rob was with me it seemed whenever something happened in my life, whether good or bad. Rob saw me in my weakest times as well as my highest points of life.

As I sat in Room 1 of the Northwest Hospital Hospice today watching my best friend's life leave his body. I could only wish that Rob would miraculously wake up and say what's happening Joe Smoke. However, that wasn't in the cards for my fraternity brother, my best friend. You see it was his time to take the journey that we all will one day take. It was his time to make those final amends to his God. It was his time to say goodbye to all his loved ones. I wanted so much to give him all my energies but it just wasn't possible. Robert's life had ended and now we, his fraternity brothers, his two sons Nigel and Rob Jr., his mother Sylvia Williams, his brother Sylvester Rinaldo Williams, his other family members and friends can only hold on to those precious memories that Robert Jeffrey Williams provided us.

Rob loved his fraternity, he loved his community and he most definitely loved his blackness. I will continue to hold those personal precious memories of my friend, my brother, my compadre, my road dog in my early adult years, close to my heart. This isn't goodbye my brother for certainly we will meet again in the final resting place for all Iota Phi Theta Brothers Alpha Iota Omega Memorial Chapter, Big Rob, thank you for allowing me to share in your final passing. No need to console me today because I am happy, so happy that my friend isn't in any more pain or discomfort, his once strong body had given in but his spirit will evermore be triumphant.

Rest In Everlasting Peace
Robert Jeffrey Williams
DC Rob 14A74