Reverend Byron Williams
In 2002, Williams was called to serve as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church. He regularly contributed to the The Huffington Post, and wrote a twice-weekly column on politics and social issues for the Bay Area News Group which includes the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, and Contra Costa Times. The column, which appeared in thirty publications across the United States, was considered for a Pulitzer Prize. Williams was the only pastor in the United States who also authored a syndicated column. Williams has write articles and op-ed pieces for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Christianity Today, UK Guardian, Tikkun Magazine, and Public Theology.
He is the author of, Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections on the Iraq War, a series of essays covering a four-year span on America’s enterprise in Iraq, and, 1963: Year of Hope and Hostility (2013). Williams lectured throughout the United States and appeared on numerous television and radio news programs, including CNN, MSNBC, ABC Radio, Fox News, and National Public Radio.
Williams served as a member of People for the American Way’s African-American Religious Affairs. In 2011, he was appointed as co-chair of the National Black Justice Coalition Religious Affairs Committee, and later served on the board of directors for Death Penalty Focus. In 2010 and 2011, Williams’ work was nationally recognized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which nominated him as “Columnist of the Year.”
Reverend Byron C. Williams was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 4, 2013.
A2013.252
Male
11/4/2013
Williams
Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley
Idaho State University
University of Nebraska-Omaha
Wenatchee Valley College
Byron
Berkeley
WIL67
Spring
California
Paris, France
The Hottest Places In Hell Are Reserved For Those Who, In Times Of Great Moral Crisis, Maintain Their Neutrality.

North Carolina
9/22/1959
Winston-Salem
United States
Beef Bourguignon
Pastor and author Reverend Byron Williams (1959 - ) was called to serve as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church in 2002. He is the author of 1963: Year of Hope and Hostility (2013), and the he only pastor in the United States who a syndicated columnist.
Resurrection Community Church
Huffington Post
Bay Area News Group
Black
Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Reverend Byron Williams' interview
Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams lists his favorites
Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his mother's family background
Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his maternal grandmother
Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his maternal grandmother's mental health and his mother
Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams describes his mother's personality and her childhood growing up in Oakland and Berkley, California
Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his father's family background
Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams remembers his father's kindness to his sister
Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his father
Tape: 1 Story: 10 - Reverend Byron Williams describes his parents' personalities and his siblings
Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the area he grew up in in Berkeley, California
Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls his earliest childhood memory
Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls his memories of his childhood neighborhood
Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls his elementary and junior high school years and politics in Berkeley, California
Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963
Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls attending Longfellow School in Berkeley, California
Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about integrating John Muir Elementary School in Berkley, California and his favorite subjects
Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and being forbidden from watching 'Death Valley Days'
Tape: 2 Story: 9 - Reverend Byron Williams describes his parents' political views and what he read as a child
Tape: 2 Story: 10 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his political opinions as a child
Tape: 2 Story: 11 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls a play he wrote in the seventh grade
Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his favorite baseball players
Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about playing basketball and playing against Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his grades and mentors at Albany High School in Albany, California
Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his high school activities and college expectations
Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his basketball career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska
Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls his years at Wenatchee Valley College and Idaho State University
Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls news of the 1978 Jonestown Massacre
Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls his time at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho
Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about being drafted for and cut from the Washington Bullets
Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about working at the Pacific Stock Exchange, pt. 1
Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about working at the Pacific Stock Exchange, pt. 2
Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about various jobs he held before volunteering for the Democratic Party in San Francisco, California
Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about ghost-writing for California politician Jerry Brown and being hired by the California Medical Association
Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the deepening of his religious faith and meeting his first wife
Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about deciding to start a church
Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams explains the definition of liberation theology and talks about attending the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California
Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about theologians Howard Thurman, Reinhold Niebuhr and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams describes his notion of inconvenient love
Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the flawed public narrative of American exceptionalism
Tape: 5 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about founding his church, Resurrection Community Church
Tape: 5 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams explains why his church, Resurrection Community Church, is nondenominational and explains his position on gay marriage
Tape: 5 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the demographics of Resurrection Community Church's congregation, and the beginnings of his column
Tape: 5 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams explains how he became a writer for the Huffington Post
Tape: 6 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his church, Resurrection Community Church, pt. 1
Tape: 6 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his church, Resurrection Community Church, pt. 2
Tape: 6 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about programs held by Resurrection Community Church
Tape: 6 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about HistoryMaker and President Barack Obama
Tape: 6 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams recalls what he talked about on MSNBC's 'Debating the Black Agenda'
Tape: 6 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about serving on the board of the National Black Justice Coalition
Tape: 6 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his book 'Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections on the Iraq War'
Tape: 6 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his book '1963: The Year of Hope & Hostility', pt. 1
Tape: 6 Story: 9 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his book '1963: The Year of Hope & Hostility', pt. 2
Tape: 6 Story: 10 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about what events of 1963 were captured on television and how they led to the events of 1968
Tape: 7 Story: 1 - Reverend Byron Williams reflects on events of 1963 and Sidney Poitier's role in 'Lilies of the Field'
Tape: 7 Story: 2 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about the pacification of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy
Tape: 7 Story: 3 - Reverend Byron Williams asserts that white fear undergirds American politics
Tape: 7 Story: 4 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about people he interviewed for his book '1963: Year of Hope & Hostility'
Tape: 7 Story: 5 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his future writing plans
Tape: 7 Story: 6 - Reverend Byron Williams reflects upon his successes
Tape: 7 Story: 7 - Reverend Byron Williams describes his hopes and concerns for the African American community
Tape: 7 Story: 8 - Reverend Byron Williams reflects upon his life
Tape: 7 Story: 9 - Reverend Byron Williams reflects upon his legacy
Tape: 7 Story: 10 - Reverend Byron Williams talks about his family
Tape: 7 Story: 11 - Reverend Byron Williams reflects upon how he would like to be remembered