Fannie Barrier Williams

Fannie Barrier Williams was a Black American social reformer and political activist whose work spanned from the 1890s to the 1920s. Technically, Williams was a trained artist, and not a social scientist at all. She studied piano, German, and portraiture (and was highly sought-after in this last role). Despite her unconventional educational background, her written works and speaking engagements consistently placed her alongside top Black sociologists, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and E. Franklin Frazier. Though she often rubbed elbows with these scholars, her unique life experiences and resolute ideological commitments kept them, and everyone else, on their toes. You can learn more about Fannie Barrier Williams' experiences, beliefs, and unique standpoint in her brief and compelling autobiography.

Williams was not always on the same theoretical cutting edge as other Black writers. She also tended to take more moderate-to-conservative stances when compared to other Black reformers and activists. HEAR ME OUT THOUGH! I think the value in her written work lies in the smooth and conversational tone she would use while re-articulating, re-framing, or questioning the key academic conversations of her time. To me, her writing feels like the 5-minute crash-course your type-A friend gives you before an exam you forgot about. Plus, she gives you her take on how to answer the in-class essay question. When it comes to sociological methods, Williams seemed to run the Frederick Douglass Centre as if it was one big mixed-method evaluative case-study. No Notes.