The first African American professional librarian in the nation, Edward Christopher Williams was head librarian at Western Reserve University, Principal of M Street High School (from 1909 to 1916), and University Librarian of Howard University (from 1916 to 1929).
Williams is the author of three plays, all written in the 1920s, The Exile, Sheriff’s Children, and The Chasm. He also wrote short stories, articles, and poems. Between January 1925 and June 1926 he serialized an epistolary novel in The Messenger, called “Letters of Davy Carr, a True Story of Colored Vanity Affair.” This novel was posthumously published as When Washington Was in Vogue (2003).
Williams was active in a number of DC cultural societies, including the Mu-So-Lit Club, the Drama Committee of the NAACP, and the Literary Lovers. He was fluent in five languages. When he died at age 58, Williams was completing a PhD at Columbia University.
The Homes
912 Westminster St. NW, Washington, DC
Edward Christopher Williams
912 Westminster St. NW
Located in Shaw/Logan Circle neighborhood, Northwest - East of Rock Creek