George Washington Williams
1849 – 1891 American Historian, journalist, minister, soldier, legislator
African-American historian whose open letter first denounced Leopold's Congo.
- Religion
- Baptist minister
George Washington Williams was an African-American Civil War veteran, minister, and pioneering historian of Black America. After visiting the Congo in 1890 he wrote an open letter to Leopold II condemning the abuses he witnessed, coining the phrase crimes against humanity in that context. He died in England the following year, before the wider reform movement gathered force.
In the timeline
- 1890 George Washington Williams and 'crimes against humanity' central figure