Bro. Williams was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. When he was 7 years old, his father was killed, and his family moved to Monmouth, Illinois.

He attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he became a track and football star. On February 2, 1921, Williams was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha and became a charger member of Alpha Gamma Chapter.

During his football career, he became one of three black players, along with Paul Robeson, to become the first black players in the National Football League during the NFL’s first official year.

He continued to play football until 1926. After graduation from Brown, he moved to Chicago and began to pursue his love of music. He became a talent scout for Paramount Records and produced “race records.” He discovered and worked with artists such as Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the “father of gospel music,” Thomas A. Dorsey.

In 1924, Williams became a charter member of Xi Lambda Chapter.

In 1927, he left Paramount and started The Chicago Record Company. After the stock market crash in 1929, his record company folded and he became a football coach at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

In 1934, after this return to Chicago, he was hired by Decca Records and recorded artists such as Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Thorpe. He later would set up the Chicago Music Publishing Company to handle music he wrote and produced, making him one of the first blacks to own their own music publishing rights.

He left Decca in 1945 and worked as a freelancer for several companies. During this time he worked with Muddy Waters, who was just starting his career. Then in 1952, he opened the Ebony label, which he ran until the early 1970’s.

Bro. Williams entered Omega Chapter on January 2, 1980.