Deciding to stay at St. Thomas Late spring 2020, Williams had announced his planned summer departure from his post (at the time) as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to assume a position at an East Coast university. Then Floyd was killed, and the Twin Cities became the epicenter of a national movement. Ozzie Nelson ’87, who considers Williams a good friend, was one of the first people Williams told about his plans to leave. “I called him after the murder of George Floyd and told him the work is here,” said Nelson, CEO and chair of Nelson, an architecture, design and strategy firm in Minneapolis. “I told him you can’t leave now. This is where you were meant to be. There’s not another place you can go where you’ll have more impact than staying here.”
step to making change and eradicating barriers. But Williams is quick to correct anyone who labels his RJI work as trainings – the point is to educate. Through the RJI, Williams lays out the historical roots of injustices that have led to systemic racism. Much of that history is shockingly different from what many people learned in school. Critical conversations can be had and community issues addressed once they understand how harmful systems were born. “We’ve got to find a way to get everybody to recognize the value of diversity and the value of tackling these problems for us as a nation the same way we’re talking about them in the community,” he said. “This needs to be a conversation about Minnesota and how we‘re thinking about tackling issues of racial discrimination and racial disparities to make us a better state.” Archie Black, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and CEO and president of SPS Commerce, sought out RJI after Floyd’s killing. Black realized more education was needed to make systemic change within his business and the greater community. However, he didn’t want just another diversity training. “I wanted education because people need the fundamental education to understand how we got here,” Black said. “We started with Dr. Williams in July 2020. He came in and spent a half day with our executive leadership team and gave us about eight hours’ worth of prework with videos and readings, and then we had a conversation.”
Turns out, Williams was thinking the exact same thing.
With the support of President Julie Sullivan and key stakeholders, Williams stayed at St. Thomas and the Racial Justice Initiative was born. “So many things have happened since George Floyd’s murder that have crystallized my decision to stay in very tangible ways, with the Jan. 6 insurrection being one of them,” Williams said. “We live in a deeply divided society and people continue to grapple with how we deal with the issues of race and division based on race. It’s been gratifying to be able to do work that addresses that question in a systematic way, as part of an institution that has a mission statement that speaks to that even as it itself is growing and evolving.” Historical recovery education The Racial Justice Initiative is centered on the process of historical recovery as a foundational
In short order, Black rolled out the RJI programming to the entire SPS community.
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