“P” is for Pickens, William (1881-1954). Educator, author, civil rights advocate. A native of Anderson County, Pickens graduated from Talladega College in Alabama. He then attended Yale before returning to Talladega to teach foreign languages. In 1910 Pickens began a forty-year affiliation with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, serving almost twenty of those years as director of branches. In his book, The New Negro (1916), Pickens stressed belief in the debt the nation owed to African Americans and advocated integration, Black economic cooperation, political activism, and nonviolent social protest. In 1923 he published his autobiography, Bursting Bonds. He was a one-time supporter of the controversial Black separatist, Marcus Garvey. From 1942 to 1950, William Pickens served the U.S. Treasury Department where he promoted the selling of savings war bonds among African Americans.
“P” is for Pickens, William (1881-1954)
