Williams, Joseph Banks

Impact on the world

Graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1944 as its first African American graduate, after being refused admission to the U.S. Naval Academy; he trained as a cadet aboard the Liberty ship SS Booker T. Washington under Captain Hugh Mulzac, later founding an endowment fund in Mulzac's honor to support minority students at the Academy, before going on to a distinguished legal career culminating in his appointment to the New York State Supreme Court.

Life & background

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, Williams was refused admission to the U.S. Naval Academy and instead enrolled at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1942, graduating in 1944 as the institution's first African American graduate after training as a cadet aboard the Liberty ship SS Booker T. Washington, where he served under Captain Hugh Mulzac, the first Black man to command a fully integrated American merchant vessel; Williams later recalled Mulzac as a demanding instructor who taught him how to become a qualified officer. He served as a Naval officer during both World War II and the Korean War, becoming the second African American commissioned in the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, before earning a law degree from New York University and building a career in New York's court system, where he headed the Family and Criminal Courts, led the city's Model Cities Program, and co-founded the Coalition of Blacks in the Courts. He was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court in 1977, serving until his 1991 retirement, and founded the Hugh N. Mulzac Endowment Fund to support minority students at his alma mater in honor of the captain who trained him.

Sources

1. U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD); USMMA Alumni Association; usmm.org (History of the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps)