Frances Harriet Williams: Unsung Social Equity Pioneer

Abstract

Frances Harriet Williams was an unsung social equity pioneer in the field of public administration. Long before the Minnowbrook I Conference convened in the 1960s to discuss the importance of fairness in the provision of public services, Williams successfully promoted values of social equity and racial fairness within public administration scholarly and practitioner communities. Raised by progressive parents in the South, Williams was the only high‐ranking African‐American woman in the federal government during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. She was directly involved in leading the Office of Price Administration to a staff that was at least 13 percent black when the rest of government was no more than 1 percent black. This work was the focus of her 1947 article in Public Administration Review, the first publication on racial equity to appear in the field's flagship journal. Her efforts and accomplishments undergird many of the ideals and practices that constitute the concept of social equity in public administration today.

Meanings Matter: The Relationship Between Constitutional Values and Social Justice

“…A parallel story of forgotten pioneers and progress echoes in academia. While the Minnowbrook Conference refocused the field's attention on social equity, there were no women or people of color present at that original conference (Riccucci, 2018), and until recently few scholars have credited Frances Harriet Williams as a pioneer of these causes decades earlier (Gooden, 2017). Williams, an African American woman, a public servant in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, and an intellectual leader, championed social and racial equity in practice as she led the Office of Price Administration and in her scholarship (Williams, 1947).…”

Building inclusive PA classrooms: The Diversity Inclusion Model

“…Profiles and interviews with women in the public administration field can be found in journals such as Public Administration Review (ex. Gooden, 2017 article focusing on Frances Harriet Williams) or the PA Times (2018) special issue on women in public administration. Another method of increasing women’s scholarship within assigned readings is to enlist students to find appropriate course reading materials written by women or using gender as a lens.…”

Popular Culture Informing Public Administration: Messages and Prospects for Social Equity

“…First, the term social equity "officially" entered the lexicon in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a consequence of the Minnowbrook I conference (Frederickson, 2010), although earlier writers of color like Frances Harriet Williams had discussed issues of social equity (Gooden, 2017). It is often shorthanded as fairness, but it also has other dimensions such as promoting due process, equal protection, and even equality.…”