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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

He was elected in 1980 under the then-new precinct voting plan, whereby officials are elected to

office by voters living in their precinct, not citywide.

Ron Williams He is the first and only black person to be elected to political office locally
by a countywide vote since Reconstruction. He won the race for county commissioner and still holds
that position.

Richard H. Anders: He is the first black School Board member since Reconstruction. A
venerable educator, coach and community leader, he helped the first local black athletes to get

college scholarships. He was so highly esteemed by black and white students that he is the only
person ever to have high school yearbooks dedicated in his name at both the all-black Richardson

High School and later at Columbia High School.
Ernest Cooley, Jr.: He was the first president of the Community Fair Action Committee

(CFAC), a group originally formed to protest the expulsion of a CHS black male student who had
been accused of entering a restroom where a white female student was. CFAC took this case to

federal court as part of their protest.
Alyce Caesar: She ran unsuccessfully for the Columbia County School Board during the

county wide voting system. An outstanding black business woman and descendant of the pioneer
Jones family of black businessmen, she was the Lake City Reporter Woman of Year in 1985.

Uriah Zinnerman: He signed the first legal documents that eventually led to the racial
desegregation of the local school system.

Glenel Bowden: He was president of the local NAACP when it filed suit against the County
Commission and the School Board, arguing against countywide elections and for district voting. As
a result, both the County Commission and the School Board agreed to convert to the district voting

system. He is currently a Lake City Councilman and also district outreach coordinator for U. S.

Congresswoman Conine Brown.

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