Sylvanie F. Williams, 1896
*Sylvanie Francoz Williams was born on this date in 1847. She was a Black educator and club woman. Born Sylvanie Francoz in Opelousas, LA, she was the daughter of François Francoz and Sarah Francoz. Her birth date varies in sources, from 1847 to 1855; her obituary places her birthdate around 1849.
She trained as a teacher at Peabody Normal School. Sylvanie F. Williams worked as a school administrator and principal of the Fisk School Girls' Department from 1883 to 1896 and Thomy Lafon School from 1896 to 1921. The latter school was burned down during rioting in 1900 but rebuilt under her leadership. Among the students under her care were A. P. Tureaud, who became a prominent civil rights lawyer. Williams prepared a report on the educational, economic, and cultural conditions of Black residents of New Orleans to be presented at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Sylvanie Francoz was married to Connecticut-born musician and educator Arthur P. Williams.
In 1895, she was the founder and president of the New Orleans chapter of the Phillis Wheatley Club, a prominent national organization for Black women. The New Orleans club sponsored a nursing school, a hospital, and a free clinic for Blacks; they also conducted sewing bees to make clothing for orphans. She also created the first public playground for Black children in New Orleans. A writer in her lifetime called Sylvanie Williams "a fine example of the resourcefulness and noble influence that a cultivated woman can and will give to the uplift of her race." She was a vice-president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACW) when it was founded in 1896.
Williams supported women's suffrage, including Black women's suffrage. In 1903, she attempted to attend the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) annual meeting held in New Orleans, but she was barred because of her race. Instead, Williams welcomed a visit to the Phillis Wheatley Club from white suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony and spoke with her about the place of Black women in the suffrage movement. She was widowed when her husband died in 1920. She died on August 12, 1921, aged about 72 years. A New Orleans elementary school is named for Sylvanie Williams.
