\u201cFishing was a way to bring people together in a time of racial tension,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere were groups of every race fishing down on the river. We always had a good time, but we weren\u2019t fishing for sport \u2013 we were fishing to put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the hook had been set. By the age of 10, Williams was fishing anywhere and everywhere he could with anyone who would take him. By 14, Williams could often be seen on the banks of the Pearl River, alone or with friends.<\/p>\n
Young Williams had no idea that he was embarking on a journey that would see him become the first African American to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic in 1983, and a lifetime later in 2024, the first African American to be inducted into the\u00a0Bass Fishing Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n In March of 1970, Williams returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam at the age of 23. After three long years in the military without touching a rod, he immediately hopped on a boat to go crappie fishing with a friend and felt the excitement course through his veins as his love for the sport came rushing back.<\/p>\n That was it for Williams. He bought a little boat with a 50-horsepower outboard and spent the next three years bass fishing every chance he could get. In 1973, he strolled into a Woolco department store and bought a Raycraft bass boat for $529.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t get that boat on the water fast enough,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI brought it back home, took the motor off the little runabout boat I had and put it on the bass boat. We picked the boat up from Woolco at 9 a.m. and were out on the Ross Barnett Reservoir by 2 p.m. that afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n Although racial desegregation had been mandated by federal law and court rulings in the 1950s and 60s, the process of integration was extremely slow and, in many cases, painful. Barriers between races continued to exist across the South, especially in Jackson.<\/p>\n \u201cI went into a store and saw an application for the Have a Heart Bass Classic, and I really wanted to fish that tournament,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cSo, I looked over the application and thought about it for a while, then called the number to talk to the tournament director.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Listen, I\u2019m calling about this tournament and I really want to fish this event,\u2019 and he said they\u2019d be happy to have me. I said, \u2018Well, look, I\u2019m Black \u2013 do you guys have any problems with me fishing this event?\u2019<\/p>\n While African American citizens and athletes had begun breaking down racial barriers by 1975, African American athletes had been largely excluded from full participation in most professional sports, relegating them to compete in segregated leagues, which offered lower pay and less visibility than the pro leagues.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t ever forget his response,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe said, \u2018You are absolutely welcome. This tournament is for the Heart Association and it\u2019s for everybody. If you want to fish it, send your application in, and if anybody says anything to you about fishing it, you call me. We want you to fish.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIf he\u2019d wavered or said it might be a problem, I wasn\u2019t going to worry about it, I just wasn\u2019t going to fish it. But he assured me that we were more than welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams filled out his application and mailed it in along with his entry fee.<\/p>\n Although Williams speaks about the racial inequality of those times with grace,\u00a0his first brush with the world of tournament bass fishing was around the same timeframe that Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth\u2019s home run record (1974) and received hundreds of thousands of hate mail letters and death threats for beating a white man\u2019s mark. It was also around the same time as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and his mother, Alberta King, in 1974.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were a little nervous about it all,\u201d Williams admitted. \u201cMy wife, Gracie, and I were raised in the South and just knew how things were back then. But just hearing the tournament director say how glad they would be for us to come eased our nerves a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams excitedly rigged his tackle and got geared up for his first tournament, then he and Gracie dressed to the nines and headed to the pre-tournament banquet.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, there was a banquet the night before every tournament, and those banquets were huge social gatherings,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe walked into our first banquet at this fancy, exclusive restaurant \u2013 there must have been 400 to 500 people in there \u2013 and when we walked through the door, you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared at us. We looked around and saw an empty table and found a seat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had barely gotten seated when a well-dressed white gentleman walked up to our table,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe watched him approach with a little apprehension, and he said, \u2018You don\u2019t know me, but I see you catching fish behind my house out on the [Ross Barnett] reservoir all the time. My wife and I would be honored if y\u2019all would come over and sit at our table and have dinner with us.\u2019 And of course we did, and that broke the ice.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the general manager for a well-known car dealer and was on television commercials and well respected. Everyone in the room went back to talking and socializing, and from that day on, he and I were really, really good friends up until he passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams drew avid hunter, fisherman and NFL running back Perry Lee Dunn in that first event, finishing 33rd, only a few places from making a check.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was my first tournament, and my first response from the bass-fishing community, and I was absolutely hooked,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019d proven myself and shown that I knew what I was doing, and I couldn\u2019t wait to get back out there for the next tournament a couple weeks later.\u201d<\/p>\n While racial inequality was still prevalent in the \u201970s and \u201980s, Williams said he and Gracie found not only acceptance but respect, friendship and camaraderie in the bass-fishing community from day one, and the couple has never dealt with any open racial discrimination over the nearly 50 years he\u2019s been in the sport.<\/p>\n Williams began fishing tournaments with B.A.S.S. and Operation Bass \u2013 which later became FLW, then\u00a0Major League Fishing<\/a>\u00a0(MLF) \u2013 in 1983 and has fished a total of 98 tournaments with B.A.S.S. and 178 tournaments with MLF over the past 41 years, winning four events and earning numerous Top 10s. Williams fished professionally with B.A.S.S. from 1987-2003 and professionally with FLW from 1997-1998 and 2004-2008. To this day, he enjoys fishing the occasional Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament in the Mississippi Division.<\/p>\n None of the bass clubs in Mississippi in the 70s and 80s had African American members, so Williams and his fellow Black anglers fished in their own club.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, all the bass clubs were full, and there were only three or four tournaments each spring; they didn\u2019t have one every weekend like we do now,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe had a few white guys start joining our club in the late 70s, early 80s. We won a state tournament in 1983, which qualified me for the state team. We then fished a divisional tournament and won, and as the top team member, I qualified for the 1983 Bassmaster Classic.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams was the first African American angler to qualify for the Classic, which was being held on the Ohio River that year, a fishery Williams had never visited. In fact, the Mississippi native had only fished on Ross Barnett Reservoir up to that point.<\/p>\n \u201cMy boat was parked with Hank Parker on one side and Rick Clunn on the other side,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe it at the time \u2013 I still can\u2019t believe it today.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams said the whole experience was something he would never forget \u2013 from being chauffeured around town, dining out at every meal with the whole Classic entourage, and being catered to throughout the entire event. Williams finished 10th out of 42 competitors, ranking ahead of Parker, Clunn, Denny Brauer and Roland Martin \u2013 no small feat for his first major tournament, especially on a new body of water.<\/p>\n \u201cThings really started happening for me after that time,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBeating so many of the guys that I\u2019d read about in Bassmaster Magazine, I felt such a sense of accomplishment. It was amazing and really gave me the confidence and determination to continue pursuing my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams received numerous congratulations after the Classic, including encouraging words from\u00a0Paul Elias<\/a>, who advised him to talk to Forrest L. Wood \u2013 founder of Ranger Boats \u2013 about competing professionally.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke with Forrest, thanking him for letting me use the boat during the Classic, and giving me the opportunity to fish,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI told him I really wanted to get into tournament fishing more and asked if there was anything he could do to help me get started. He told me to write him a letter when I got back home.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams wrote the letter, and Wood and Ranger endorsed him and provided his tournament boat for the next 28 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t thank Forrest enough for that opportunity and for supplying me with a state-of-the-art boat all those years to follow my passion,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThe first tournament I ever won was the Dr. Pepper Open back in 1978. I took home a check for $2,500, which was a huge payday in the late 70s, but knowing my boat was taken care of each year was a huge blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Daniels Jr.<\/a>, an African American pro who fishes the Major League Fishing (MLF)\u00a0Bass Pro Tour<\/a>, met Williams through a mutual friend back in 2015, and the two became fast friends. However, Daniels said he\u2019s been looking up to Alfred long before that first meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cI was ate up with fishing from a young age, and you just never saw anyone who was African American fishing professionally, so I was really inspired by Alfred,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cI belonged to a bass club, and we had some African American weekend warriors, but no pros.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniels expressed the importance for aspiring anglers to see professional anglers that they can identify with, but said that Williams\u2019 influence on the sport runs much deeper than the color of his skin.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time the water temp gets above 55 degrees, we can\u2019t wait to fish topwater and throw a frog \u2013 and every time I throw a frog, I think of Alfred,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cRegular, hollow-body frogs came out many years ago, with semi-hard plastic legs. Alfred had the inclination to cut off the plastic legs, then cut the skirt off a spinnerbait and push the spinnerbait skirt through the holes on the frog, so it now has spinner-bait style legs as opposed to hard legs.\u201d<\/p>\n While Williams didn\u2019t create the frog, he has been attributed for helping put it on the map and helping create the modern-day frog experience.<\/p>\n Williams is also credited with adding weight to his favorite Snag Proof models to make them ride lower in the water, dramatically improving his hooksets, as well as adding a rattle chamber to the belly to draw more strikes. Snag Proof incorporated some of Williams\u2019 frog modifications in certain tournament models of its frogs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see those types of frogs everywhere now,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cFrom the highest-end baits made in Japan to all the American-made baits and everything in between, every hollow-body frog has skirted legs, and that is literally Alfred\u2019s design. That blows my mind.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always somebody that takes that first step and breaks the mold, and Alfred is that guy. He\u2019s truly a pioneer in our sport. One can only imagine how apprehensive he was when he first started out, yet he overcame all of that and had a very successful career as a tournament angler. I\u2019m very proud of him and his accomplishments and am happy to call him a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 success over the years has attracted more African American anglers, and opened the door for Daniels,\u00a0Ish Monroe<\/a>,\u00a0Brian Latimer<\/a>\u00a0and other African American anglers along the way. But his impact and his legacy have been far-reaching throughout the entire bass world.<\/p>\n Dudley Salers<\/a>\u00a0is a lifelong friend of Williams who\u2019s competed with him for over 50 years. Salers and Williams fished the former\u00a0Red Man Trail<\/a>\u00a0together in the 70s \u2013 now known as the\u00a0Phoenix Bass Fishing League<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 but never let their competitive nature come before their friendship.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of respect for Alfred and am proud to call him my friend. He\u2019s just a genuinely nice person and treats everyone with respect,\u201d said the 83-year-old Salers. \u201cHe called to tell me he\u2019d been nominated, and I was so happy for him. I told him it\u2019s an honor just to be nominated, but when they selected him, I was thrilled. Alfred\u2019s had a lot of success in his lifetime, and a lot of opportunities that could have changed him, but he\u2019s never let it go to his head. He\u2019s just always been the same old Alfred.\u201d<\/p>\n
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