Roosevelt Lorenzo Williams

With a rousing sense of humor, Lorenzo tells beautiful stories about his grandparents who reared him when his mother left the South to become a nurse in New York and send money home for his care and education.  His Baptist minister paternal grandfather halted his impending confirmation one Sunday morning at the Catholic school he attended just in the nick of time.

To help make ends meet, his beloved maternal grandmother hosted a booming Happy Hour business with corn liquor and chitterlings, with some after-work regulars from the local VA Hospital. Lorenzo helped with the business until there was an official threat of “the child” being taken out of the home.

Lorenzo gives a destressing description of how his desire to advance to colonel or higher in the military was cut short by a misfortunate decision he made, and having a supervisor whom Lorenzo felt brought his racism to work.

Lorenzo graduated from Tuskegee Institute with a military commission from his ROTC program.  After leaving the military, he worked in sales in several corporations.  Deciding to return to Tuskegee, he taught a course in golfing to hundreds of Tuskegee students.