Rest in Power, Ms. Michele Williams

Services: Thursday, May 2
Wake at 10am, funeral at 11am
Seals/Ali Funeral Home, 8354 S. Marquette Ave.

Last Thursday, Ms. Michele Williams, a STOP leader since 2015, passed away. Ms. Williams was a real one. She was fiery, never afraid to speak truth to power and call it like she saw it.

Ms. Williams led the organizing of a tenants association at Island Terrace, a 240-apartment building at 6430 S. Stony Island. She was also a leader in the Obama CBA Coalition, a leader with the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, and a volunteer with many other organizations. Ms. Williams wore many hats; she often introduced herself as with "STOP, Island Terrace, the CBA, KOCO, MTO, and everything else they got me in."

Ms. Williams was recruited into STOP by Deborah Taylor, one of the core leaders of STOP in our formative years. Ms. Williams immediately stepped up to the plate, organizing her building, bringing tenants together to fight to preserve the building’s affordability and ensure much needed repairs were done.

Ms. Williams watched the gentrification of Bronzeville and knew that it was happening in Woodlawn too. When the Obama Center was announced, she knew that even though she loved her president, she would have to lead the fight to ensure that low income and working black families were not pushed out.

In speaking to the media, Ms. Williams would not sugar coat what was happening. She called the displacement and disinvestment in her community how she saw it: a genocide. Ms. Williams led countless rallies, marches, teach-ins, and panels; wrote letters to the president; circulated petitions for a voter referendum; and so much more. Ms. Williams's leadership was instrumental in helping to win the 2020 CBA Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance — an ordinance that won historic housing protections for residents in Woodlawn, including setting aside 52 vacant lots for real affordable housing.

Ms. Williams loved to share her wisdom with the next generation: from intergenerational leadership retreats to Highlander in Tennessee, and Jackson Mississippi, to baby showers, BBQ and her birthday bashes. She brought so much joy and love and realness to every room.

Ms. Williams often shared that it was her mother who got her into politics, who taught her to do outreach, pass out flyers and bring people together. She grew up on the low end, in the Ida B Wells Homes, and often reminisced of the old days when the milk man and the ice man would come around to sell their goods. She remembered when community looked after each other, when a neighbor's mother was allowed to discipline another neighbor's child, and when the community truly was a village. She fought to rebuild that village every day, and we are in debt to her for all she gave to move us towards it. Rest in power, Ms. Williams!