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After getting married and becoming a young mother, Sherry Williams never dreamed she would return to school at age 55. When she did, she decided to attend �ڰ�������’s Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (CCICS).

“I made a point when I returned to college—I would return to the place that was in my heart so many years ago,” William said.

CCICS is located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago where Williams resides and where her family has lived for more than 75 years.

Williams earned her bachelor’s degree from �ڰ�������’s University Without Walls program in 2017, then went on to earn her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 2019.

The education has served her well as founder and president of the , a nonprofit organization dedicated to chronicling the arrival of African Americans to Chicago during the Great Migration and beyond.

On Feb. 24, Williams’ journey will come full circle when she delivers an NEIU Alumni: All Access lecture titled “Are We Losing Ground?” at CCICS as part of �ڰ�������’s Black History Month activities.

The talk will focus on celebrating the history of CCICS as well as the contributions of African Americans in the Chicago area, particularly in Bronzeville.

“In a nutshell, I want to convey that we cannot just commit to memory the history of the NEIU Center for Inner City Studies and the community, that we must celebrate it,” Williams said.

Williams founded the Bronzeville Historical Society in 1999. When she came to �ڰ������� in 2014 to earn her undergraduate degree, she was eager to expand her knowledge to forward the organization. She was a McNair Scholar and applied to as many scholarship and grant opportunities as she could to fund her education while also maintaining her deeply rooted passion for protecting Bronzeville’s history.

“My history with the Carruthers Center probably spans four generations prior to it becoming the Center for Inner City Studies,” said Williams, who lives just blocks away. “I had always walked past the Carruthers Center as a young child and into my adulthood. I also worked near there as a young adult.”

Williams’ mother, Doris Davis, had shared fond memories with Williams of taking piano, tap and other dance lessons at CCICS when it was still known as the Abraham Lincoln Center. Williams’ mother and her family arrived in Chicago in 1942 after fleeing the Jim Crow South. Once she arrived in Chicago, she quickly became involved in humanitarian service in her community.

Williams credits much of her success to her mother, who knew how to grow or make just about anything and used her skills to make ends meet for their family as well as help people in the community who were struggling. It was that example that Williams continued to follow when she started the Bronzeville Historical Society.

“I grew up with a mother who was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement as well as just really pushed for empowerment for single mothers,” Williams said. “Without a doubt, I consider her to be the smartest woman in the world.”

Williams became excited about public history after she found discarded photos of Black families in a home she was remodeling. As her collection and interest in history grew, it s