Rest in Peace, Captain Josh Williams
Josh Williams, the longtime ILWU member and pensioner who created and led Local 10’s famous Drill Team for 50 years, passed on June 3 at the age of 83.
Like many African-Americans of his generation, Williams’ family was based in the south. His father was a sharecropper and Josh remembered working in the fields with him to pick cotton when he was seven years old.
Williams excelled as an athlete in high school before joining the Army which allowed him to escape from the Jim Crow laws of the South. After basic training in Southern California where he learned to march and drill, Williams applied to be a paratrooper but was barred because he was African- American. After serving in the Korean War, he enrolled at City College in San Francisco where he joined a fraternity and experimented with modifying the drills that he learned in the military. The college Dean told him to stop drilling and study more.
When Williams joined the ILWU in 1959 at the age of 26, union members were in the middle of a difficult struggle – transitioning away from the labor-intensive “break-bulk” loading process involving “gangs” of men who sometimes labored together for weeks on a vessel – and moved towards the new container technology that raised productivity and profits, while cutting turn times and the size of the workforce.
Williams and his co-workers who survived this transition found themselves able to win new contracts with dramatically better pay and benefits, but he and others were also inspired by the Civil Rights Movement that was sweeping the country.
In 1965, Williams invented a new kind of “drill team” that would blend union solidarity themes with military drills and some slick dance moves. The following year they showcased the Local 10 Drill Team’s unique style at a mass march down Market Street to honor Cesar Chavez and his newly organized farmworker campaign. In 1967, they performed when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Local 10, and continued performing at social justice events both large and small – in the Bay Area and across the country – including massive anti-war protests, May Day demonstrations, parades, receptions and ceremonies of all kinds.
A memorial service was held for Williams on June 15th at Duggan’s Serra Mortuary in Daily City. It was attended by approximately 100 family, friends and union brothers and sisters whose lives Josh has touched. The Local 10 Drill Team gave their general a final send off. Former drill team members from as far away as Los Angeles made the trip to say their final good byes to Josh. Following the service, a repast was hosted at the Local 10 Hall.
The ILWU International officers approved a $1,500 donation for the reception. Williams’ internment was held on June 22 at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery.