Kenny Williams

Who was Kenny Williams?

Kenny J. Williams was an African American scholar and author, and an English professor at Duke University.

Williams was born in Kentucky, and received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. She was from 1977 until her death, a professor in Duke University's Department of English. Her father was Joseph Harrison Jackson, President of the National Baptist Convention from 1941–1990.

In 1986, she received the MidAmerica Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature for distinguished contributions to the study of same. Williams was appointed in 1991 to the National Council on the Humanities by President George H. W. Bush.

She was member of the Executive Board of the American Literature Association, and also served on the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities.