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Hazel Browne Williams, the first full-time African American professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, exemplified academic excellence throughout her career as an educator. A graduate of Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri, Williams studied English at the University of Kansas, where she overcame racism and indifference from professors and was elected to the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. 


Hazel Browne Williams

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Hazel Browne Williams headstone

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Hazel Browne was born on 9 February 1907, the only child of John and Effie Moten Browne. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1923, where she earned the honor of serving as the first woman sponsored major rank of the school’s ROTC. Her reputation for breaking barriers would continue throughout her life. Browne chose to pursue a career in education because it was one of the few professions open to Black women in the 1920s. Upon graduation in 1927, from the University of Kansas, she earned two master’s degrees — one in English from Kansas University and the second in Guidance Counseling from Columbia University.

Early in her career, Hazel Browne married Claude Williams, a principal at Leeds Junior High School, who died in 1937. In 1932, Williams began her career in education at Louisville Municipal College, a Black liberal arts school and a branch of the University of Louisville, teaching English and German.

Ms. Williams received a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Columbia University and went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University in 1953. She was also honored as a Fulbright exchange teacher in 1956 and taught English in Vienna, Austria. Professor Williams would become best known for her tenure at UMKC, starting as associate professor of education in 1958 and rising two years later to full professor. 

After 18 years of service, Williams retires in 1976 and became the first African American awarded emeritus status by the university. She also was active in several organizations and institutions including the NAACP, YWCA and Mattie Rhodes Center. 

Hazel Browne Williams died 7 July 1986 in Kansas City, MO, and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery. 

Flynn, Jane Fifield. Kansas City Women of Independent Minds. Kansas City, MO. Fifield Publishing Co., 1992.

Accessed February 23rd, 2023. https://kcblackhistory.org/articles/hazel-browne-williams .

Accessed February 23rd, 2023. https://kchistory.org/document/biography-hazel-browne-williams-1907-1986-educator?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=4116841a897c88f6de49&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0&search=hazel%2520browne%2520williams .

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Black Archives of Mid-America

Forest Hill & Calvery Cemtery