CIVIL RIGHTS WORK AND HISTORY
My civil rights work began while in high school (1960-64) in Pitt County, NC. I worked with Dr. Andrew Best, Grantz Norcott and Bennie Roundtree to build a youth chapter of the NAACP in our county.
When I got to college in 1964, I got involved with Floyd McKissick and CORE in Durham, NC. I participated in the marches and sit-in's to integrate downtown public accommodations. I also worked as a student intern with the United Organizations for Community Improvement (UOCI) in Durham, NC. I was drafted in 1966 and became the first black person from my county to "not step forward" at the induction center in Greenville, NC. The next two years were spent in numerous appearances before my local draft board and working with the American Friends Service Committee Anti Draft efforts in NC.
From 1966 to 1968, I worked for the Youth Educational Services (YES), a state-wide, student run tutorial program with over 5,000 volunteers throughout North Carolina.
In 1968 and 1969, I worked with Howard Fuller at the Foundation for Community Development to establish Malcolm X Liberation University (MXLU) (Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina). The majority of initial building renovations, furnishings, materials, supplies and teaching staff was donated or in-kind. Back then we referred to this as "liberating resources for the people".
From 1969 to 1972, I worked with Nelson Johnson to establish the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU) to create a post "civil rights era" black student organization. My next major "civil rights" experience was with the National Black Child Development Institute and the North Carolina Federation of Child Development Centers from 1972 to 1977. In this job, I worked with inner-city and rural communities to fight for state and federal resources to develop child care centers. After completing graduate school in 1979, I spent the next ten years working in Alabama, North Carolina and Florida working for rural community health centers, farmworker advocacy organizations, and church-based social and racial justice projects.
CURRENT BIO AND WORK:
PHILANTHROPIC ADVISOR AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST
Mr. Franklin D. Bobrow-Williams, a philanthropic advisor, rural futurist and resource developer, is a Senior Consultant with The Bobrow-Williams Group, LLC in Augusta, Georgia. The firm is owned and operated by his wife, Sarah R. Bobrow-Williams. Mr. Williams has worked extensively with family foundations, community-based organizations and economic development projects as well as religious organizations, credit unions, worker-owned cooperatives and small businesses in the rural development field. He has broad experience in human services and societal change work. He was active in the Civil Rights, Anti War and Student Rights Movements and a leader in the formation of several state and national student led organizations in the 1960's and 70's. He currently plays a major role in national, regional, and local rural development efforts.
Currently, The Bobrow-Williams Group, LLC is involved with county, regional, and multi state-level rural development work. The Group is engaged in projects in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina and South Carolina. The projects include cultural heritage and historic preservation based tourism, government and nonprofit depot exchange property centers, local skills-based business and industrial development, and specialty crop and animal agricultural-based ventures. The depot exchange property concept was pioneered at Boggs where over $4 million in private business, industry and excess/surplus government furniture and equipment was secured for Boggs and CSRA EC facilities and more than 15 other affiliated programs.
At the national and regional level, Mr. Bobrow-Williams is board member and current chairperson of the American Forum and a member of the Small Town Capacity Initiative, a collaborative effort of the National Association of Towns and Townships and the Aspen Institute, both in Washington, DC. He has been a board member of the Community Information Exchange, Washington, DC; board member and former chair of the Rural Development and Finance Corporation, San Antonio, Texas; advisor to national racial and social justice projects of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ; trustee of Franklinton Center at Bricks, Whitakers, NC and board member and founding president of the Southern Rural Development Initiative, Raleigh, North Carolina.
In his home state, Mr. Bobrow-Williams is a current member of the Executive Board of the Hancock County Family Connection Collaborative, Sparta,Georgia. He is a former trustee of the Sapelo Foundation, St. Simons Island, Georgia; member of Team Agriculture Georgia, Athens, Georgia; former board member of Richmond/Burke Job Training Authority, Augusta, Georgia; former community-based advisor to Fort Valley State University's College of Agriculture, Fort Valley, Georgia; and a former advisor to the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, Atlanta, Georgia.
Mr. Bobrow-Williams served as CEO of the Boggs Rural Life Center from 1992 to 2000. During his tenure at Boggs, Mr. Bobrow-Williams spearheaded, along with the CSRA Regional Development Center, the development of a 10-Year Plan for the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) which led to its designation as an Enterprise Community (EC), resulting in a $3 million grant. Boggs, the CSRA, and local counties/cities have helped leverage an additional $100 million into the six county target area. He lead the Boggs' Board through more than $2.5 million of facility renovations, equipment and furniture upgrades, and grounds improvements. At Boggs he created a Materials and Supply Depot which secured over $4 million in private business, industry and excess/surplus government furniture and equipment for Boggs facilities, CSRA EC's Human Development Centers, and more than 15 other Boggs affiliated programs. Mr. Bobrow-Williams has also helped the City of Keysville and the Keysville Concerned Citizens with developing a six-year $852,000 W. K Kellogg Foundation rural health initiative. His tenure at Boggs was concluded with the development of a unique joint venture, Rural Development Enterprises, LLC (RDE, LLC), to maximize the economic potential of the more than $6 million in assets and $500,000 in annual non-cash resources received through Boggs' Materials and Supply Depot.
Prior to coming to Boggs, Mr. Bobrow-Williams was Director of the Bert and Mary Meyer foundation in Winter Park, Florida. He was associated with the Foundation for a total of six years serving as a board member during 1986 and 1987, and as a management consultant from 1987, prior to becoming Director in 1990. Before going to the Foundation he directed the East Coast Farm Worker Support Network and the Management and Program Support Services (MAPSS) of the United Church of Christ's Commission for Racial Justice.
Mr. Bobrow-Williams was born into a sharecropping family in eastern North Carolina. He received his early education in Pitt County, North Carolina schools and matriculated in North Carolina College (now NCCU) and Shaw University. He received his M. Ed. degree in Administration and Management from the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus of Antioch College in Yellow Spring, Ohio. He is married to the former Sarah Rachel Bobrow. He has two sons and one daughter, Khary Jerrod Williams, Morgan Francisco Bobrow-Williams, and Corinne Elizabeth Bobrow-Williams.
Copyright © 2001-2004
Last Modified: December 3, 2004.
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