Shirley Broyard Williams
*Shirley Broyard Williams was born on January 3, 1923. She was a Black social worker and housewife.
From New Orleans, Louisiana, Shirley Broyard was the daughter of Paul Anatole Broyard, a carpenter and construction worker, and his wife, Edna Miller, neither of whom had finished elementary school. Broyard came from a Creole family; her brother was writer Anatole Broyard. She was the second of three children, with a sister, Lorraine, who was two years older; both were light-skinned with European features.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College and went on to marry Franklin Williams. Williams was a lawyer with the NAACP, helped organize the Peace Corps, and served as Ambassador to Ghana. The couple had two sons, Franklin Jr., of New York City, and Paul A., of Lyme.
Shirley Broyard Williams passed away on May 6, 2008, at the age of 85 and is buried in Flushing, Queens County, New York.
