Lloyd Williams, who rallied the business community and united commerce with culture to promote a modern Harlem Renaissance, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 80.
His death, in a hospital, was caused by prostate cancer, his son, Lateef Adé Williams, said.
Mr. Williams was among the last surviving members of Harlem’s Old Guard, which was led by four Democratic elected officials: Representative Charles B. Rangel, Mayor David N. Dinkins, Manhattan Borough President Percy E. Sutton and Basil A. Paterson, who served as a state senator, a deputy mayor and New York’s secretary of state.
Mr. Williams’s only public office was the chairmanship of the community board that encompassed Harlem.
But for more than half a century, he held sway as a civic leader from his base in a venerable business organization — the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce — that spurred residential and commercial development, tourism, and pride in the neighborhood’s history and potential as it hurdled the social unrest, declining health and housing abandonment that accelerated in the tumultuous 1960s.
In 1970, Mr. Williams was recruited by Hope Stevens, president of what was known until 1993 as the Uptown Chamber of Commerce, to serve as its first Black vice president of programs. He was promoted to executive vice president under Lloyd E. Dickens in 1976. When Mr. Dickens died in 1988, Mr. Williams succeeded him as chief executive and president, a post he held for the rest of his life.
He was credited as a founder and architect of Harlem Week, a festival that was begun in 1974 as Harlem Day by Mr. Sutton, as a one-time event to help counter the neighborhood’s social and economic decline. It was expanded to a week the next year.
Mr. Williams described Harlem Week to The New York Times in 1979 as a means of “positively projecting the community to itself” as it struggled to balance gentrification by newcomers with the affordable housing needs of its existing residents, and to protect local retailers as chain stores proliferated.
He died during this year’s Harlem Week celebration, which runs through Aug. 17.
Mr. Williams also helped spur gospel tours, which brought tourists by the busloads to the community’s storied churches on Sundays.
Among the positions he held were president of the Greater Harlem Housing Development Corporation, vice chairman of the Harlem Arts Alliance and chairman of the President’s Executive Advisory Board at the City College of New York.
He was a founding board member of the restored Apollo Theater and a founder of the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the executive boards of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and New York City Tourism + Conventions, the city’s official travel and hospitality industry organization.
“For more than 50 years, Lloyd has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life and shape both the cultural and economic identity of not just Harlem but the city as whole,” the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
Mr. Rangel described him in remarks to Congress in 2004 as “truly a pioneer in both the fields of culture and commerce” who “has managed to harmoniously unite the two, providing opportunities for Harlem residents to thrive.”
Lloyd Ashburn Williams was born on Jan. 16, 1945, on the island of Jamaica. The family moved to Harlem, where relatives had lived since 1919, when he was 2 years old. His father, Alfred, was a chauffeur; his mother, Violet, was an evangelist.
He grew up on West 120th Street and considered Malcolm X, who he said would take him to meetings when he was a child, his godfather. But, he added: “My most important connection is my grandmother, who passed away at the age of 103. She was my major role model, and she forced me to make education a priority, and make the people of color a mission of priority — she forced me to understand and love Harlem.”
He and Voza W. Rivers edited “Forever Harlem: Celebrating America’s Most Diverse Community” (2006), an illustrated history. He was working on a sequel at his death.
Mr. Williams attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights and later transferred to, and graduated from, Brooklyn Technical High School. He was a business major at Syracuse University, his son said, but left before he graduated to accept an internship with Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.
In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Valorie Roberson-Williams, and a grandson.
Sam Roberts is an obituaries reporter for The Times, writing mini-biographies about the lives of remarkable people.
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