To pay tribute and say goodbye, the Harlem community and other admirers turned out by the score on Saturday to remember Lloyd Asburn Williams. The historic setting was Williams’s landmarked faith-home, the Salem United Methodist Church, founded by the Reverend Dr. Frederick Cullen (foster father of famed Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen).
Williams was first recruited to community leadership by Hope Stevens in 1970. Then, starting 18 years later, he served as chief executive and president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce for 37 years, succeeding Lloyd E. Dickens.
I already knew who Williams was when we first met 30 years ago — the cofounder of Harlem Week. But not until then had I realized that the group he led was a continuation of the Harlem Board of Commerce, later the Uptown Chamber of Commerce, established in 1896, when Harlem was almost entirely white. Apart from the chamber’s ubiquitous presence uptown, I knew of him because of my friendship with his sister Grace Williams, an extraordinary artist. Grace had generously put her apartment on 120th Street, on the parlor floor of the house her family had owned since 1919, on the Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association’s annual house tour.
“My son is the fourth generation on the block,” she told a reporter from the New York Times on June 6, 1991.
Telling me then of her brother’s success and hers as well, Grace spoke of the guidance of their mother and grandmother, of the pride instilled in them as “strong and independent people who had immigrated from Jamaica in pursuit of America’s rich opportunities. ”
Michael Henry Adams photo
Photographer Sidney Barry. 
Lloyd Williams’s godchildren, Akiysa Sanders and Gilbert Paschall IV. 
The lovely Ibrahims, Amina, Zarobi, Cianni, and Amari. 
Michael Henry Adams with Lana Turner. 
Artist Grace Williams, Lloyd Williams’s sister, was named for their Jamaican grandmother, Grace Sergant, who guided them both. 
State Senator Cordelle Cleare. 
Sybil and Cynthia Young-Tree. 
Realtors Elaine Perry and Laurent Delly. 
Sylvia Hunter. 
Jazzmobile’s Robin Bell. 
Songbird Vi Higgenson. 
Charles Johnson, Esq.; NAACP, former first vice chair of CB10 
Sylvia Alston. 
Ever valiant, the Hon. Letitia James. 
Jennie Orane-Henry. 
Indiyah and Lisa Aird. 
Delain Brown (front), Siobhan Bennett (right). 
Former NY State Assemblyman Keith Wright sat outside at well-attended repast held at Londell’s Restaurant.
Echoing these words Saturday, Leticia James eulogized Lloyd Williams, saying: “He embodied the hopes and dreams of immigrants, people who today live in fear, but have contributed mightily to making our city, state, and nation as great as we are today.” A little while later, noting how in part, thanks to Harlem Week’s exposure and Williams’s ability to present Harlem in a positive light many had failed to see previously, she warned, “Now everyone wants to live in Harlem.” James admonished the receptively applauding congregation, “You must hold onto your brownstones or whatever other part of Harlem you still have.”
Speaking for a citywide political delegation in attendance, the Hon. Inez Dickens recalled a familial relationship with Williams as a follower of her father. Despite once having borrowed her car and letting it get towed, he was, she insisted, “a reliable friend to my family, to me, and to all Harlem.”
It was Williams’s indomitable spirit as a freedom fighter that the Rev. Al Sharpton wished to convey: “Lloyd wasn’t no punk … We got too many elected punks around here.” Speaking of a festering national hysteria seeking to demean and demonize African Americans, Sharpton said forces are seeking to undermine the progress made through Williams’s efforts: “You don’t know who we are. We aren’t scared. Lloyd, we won’t let you down. We got here, not 250 years ago, but in 1619, stripped of our names, our land, our history. If we can survive all of that, we are ready when you come. Stand up for yourself,” he concluded, “like Lloyd stood up for us.”
Interspersed with inspirational anthems, like a stirring rendition of “Down by the Riverside” by Vy Higginsen’s wonderful choir, with everyone clapping, every remembrance was profound and uplifting. Not surprisingly, the most heartfelt and poignant testimonial of all came from Williams’s son, Lateef Adé Williams, joined at the lectern by his wife Valorie Roberson-Williams and their young son.
Intimating something of the challenges of being heir to a great man, he said: “Dad drove a Lexus, I drive a bicycle.” He reflected on what others had already suggested was his father’s philosophy of life: “Your problem is that you only see the problem,” recalling, “Dad practiced what he preached: Move on and seek the possibilities.”
For our troubled times ahead in Harlem, in New York, in the nation, and throughout the world, these are wise words indeed that we can all abide by and for which we can thank Lloyd Williams.