Priscilla McWilliams

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Priscilla Johnson McWilliams (born c. 1956 in Cromwell, Choctaw County) is a minister at Destiny Covenant Church in Tarrant and a former member of the Pleasant Grove City Council, serving from 2014 to 2016.

McWilliams graduated from Choctaw County High School, then earned a bachelor's degree in business administration at the University of Alabama. She worked for the University of Alabama Press and for a Birmingham area non-profit, and also as an event planner and promoter, but stopped working due to poor health. She and her husband Erskin McWilliams were married in November 1992 and have three children, Trey, Christopher, and Adrea.

In 2000 McWilliams was licensed to minister by L. Spencer Smith at New Testament Church in Tuscaloosa. After moving to the Birmingham area she became involved in ministry at Cedric Brown's New City Church.

McWilliams moved to Pleasant Grove's "Garden Grove" neighborhood in 2007 and became active in civic affairs, attending council meetings regularly. When council member Pete Mosely resigned in 2014 she was one of nine residents to apply for the remainder of his term. When the other Council members appointed her on October 20, she became the city's first African-American official.

As a council member, McWilliams hoped to assist in the city's efforts to promote and market itself as it struggled to maintain its population and tax base in the wake of widespread damage from the April 2011 tornado outbreak.

McWilliams lost her seat to Bob Crumpton in the 2016 municipal election. In 2018 she signed onto a letter from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) notifying the city that its method of voting at-large may violate Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The letter prompted Mayor Jerry Brasseale to have city attorney J. D. Terry discuss the matter with the LDF, and for the Council to hold hearings to discuss the possibility of establishing electoral districts.

References

  • Chambers, Jesse (October 22, 2014) "Pleasant Grove swears in first-ever African-American council member, replacing Pete Mosley." The Birmingham News
  • Chambers, Jesse (October 23, 2014) "First African-American on Pleasant Grove council wants people to know city is 'a good place to live'." The Birmingham News
  • Beahm, Anna (August 22, 2018) "'They don't understand my fight': Black Pleasant Grove residents want answers on election method." The Birmingham News