Annette Polly Williams

Biography

Born Belzoni, MS, Jan. 10, 1937; 4 children. Grad. Milw. North Div. H.S.; attended Milw. Area Tech. College 1971-73; B.S. UW-Milwaukee 1975. Full-time legislator. Former mental health assistant, counselor, cashier/clerk, keypunch operator, typist. Lectured at Harvard, Yale, Marquette, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Minnesota Universities. Coordinated food, clothing, and fund drive for Hurricane Katrina survivors 2005. Appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes, NBC’s Today, ABC’s World News, and PBS’s MacNeil-Lehrer Report. First African American and first female candidate for Milwaukee County Exec. 1992. State chair, Jesse Jackson presidential campaign 1988, 1984. Awards: Education Week Faces of the 20th Century; UW-Milwaukee Lifetime Achievement Award 1998; New York Times - one of 13 innovators who changed education in the 20th century; UW-Milwaukee Alumni Assn.’s Distinguished Alumnus 1994; National Black Caucus of State Legislators President’s Award for Distinguished Service 1990. Received presidential invitation to White House Conference on Parental Choice, January 1989. Auckland Inst. of Technology 1993 Visiting Fellow, Auckland, New Zealand; Scholar in Residence, Natl. Alliance of Black School Educators 1996; Natl. Black Caucus of State Legislators (financial secy.). Presidential elector for Barack Obama 2008.

Elected to Assembly since 1980. Longest serving woman legislator in either house. Author of nation’s first parents education choice legislation.