Terry Williams and his parents are longtime residents of the Alamo Square neighborhood in San Francisco, dating back to the 1970s. But ever since the 49-year-old started his dog-walking business about 14 years ago, he has experienced racist attacks. It all culminated in a series of horrific events in April and May that now have left his family homeless.
On May 21, on the heels of receiving racist packages and death threats, his family home burned down. The entire community was stunned, and many are questioning why he didn’t have police protection around his home, given the disturbing nature and seriousness of the harassment leading up to the fire.
On the morning of April 26, Williams’ father found something on their doorstep that shook the family to their core. A clear plastic bag had been filled with notes spewing racist vitriol. There was a creepy doll with slurs scribbled all over it, and — perhaps most chilling of all — a photo of Williams with a noose around his neck.
The same day, San Francisco police opened a hate crime investigation and had a small lead in the case: they obtained surveillance video from a neighbor that showed a person approaching Williams’ home around 12:30 a.m.
On May 5, around 2 a.m., a second threatening package arrived at Williams’ home that escalated the vitriol. It contained a black face doll with a noose, and “Terry Williams” had been written across the top of the doll’s head.
The notes were worse this time, with horrific death threats directed at Williams, including “Get out of Alamo Square District”, “Pure race whites rule the globe”, “We will continue to exterminate you n***** slaves,” and images of the KKK.
Neighbors, friends, and family rallied behind Williams, organizing a GoFundMe to raise money for a security system and to help his family relocate to a safe location while the police tracked down leads.
On May 11, a “Rally Against Racism” drew a crowd to Alamo Square in his honor to “raise awareness of the hate crimes committed against our neighbor,” said the flyer. In the meantime, Terry turned to the press to get media attention on his case.
“This has got to stop. My people don’t speak up – they keep everything tucked in. You can’t let this go by. Can’t let this go by. The more stuff you let go by the most they feel entitled to do stuff. This is my way stepping up, no I’m not letting this happen no more. This makes me want to stay and fight harder, I’m not going anywhere,” he told ABC 7 News.
Shortly after the rally, Mayor London Breed spoke with Williams and promised his case would be a top priority for the San Francisco police.
City supervisor Dean Preston introduced a resolution urging law enforcement to track down the perpetrators, in which he stated, “To see these kinds of threats directed at Black residents in our community is revolting and brings to mind cross-burnings and other acts of racial terror targeting Black residents.”
Still, on May 21 in the late morning, Williams’s family home was suddenly set ablaze while Williams was meeting with city leaders.
Williams’ elderly parents were in the home at the time of the fire. His father, Luddie, 81, said his wife smelled smoke and before they knew it, the living room was an inferno.
“I don’t know what happened,” Luddie Williams told The San Francisco Standard. “I was just trying to get me and my wife the hell out of there.”
Williams’ mother Carolyn, who is nearly 80, had to be carried out of the building, and his father was rescued as he was trying to escape the fire, witnesses told Mission Local. They were both sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, and a bomb squad was called in to sweep the residence. No bombs or explosive devices were found.
“How dare they, whoever they are, come and attack my elderly parents?” said Letisha Humphrey, Williams’ sister, to Mission Local. “I have a few other choice things I would love to say, but it might not be appropriate.”
Outraged community members are taking to social media to vent their frustrations.
“Yup. My roommate is cousins Terry Williams. She called while the parents were still in the burn unit at the hospital yesterday. What I wanna know is WHY didn’t he have 24 hour police protection around his house when he was receiving racist threats and NOOSES from his neighbors,” posted one person on X.
“Terri doesn’t bother NO ONE!! He minds his business and walks his dogs. This area where Terri resides was once a prominent Black community. They have forced every1 out (there’s no homelessness in that particular area) and Terri & his family are the last Black family on the block,” posted another.
A longtime neighbor, Noz Nozawa told The San Francisco Standard that she has no doubt the fire is connected to the prior threats Williams received.
“We don’t know what caused this fire, but I have no doubt that the same perpetrator is responsible for this, and that really scares me,” Nozawa said. “It went from this is stupid and also terrifying and hateful to: They could have murdered people today.”
Since 1990, the percentage of Black San Francisco residents has dropped from 10.9 percent to 5.7 percent in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Many blame gentrification and skyrocketing housing costs in the city for the decrease, but hate crimes play a role.
Black people report experiencing nearly 60 percent of all hate violence in San Francisco, according to a 2020 San Francisco Human Rights Commission resolution, and also have the highest mortality rate in the city, with nine of the top 10 causes of death.
Williams doesn’t know how he will recover from yet another set back but he promises to “keep fighting.”
According to NBC News, no arrests have been made yet, and Williams has filed a report with the FBI.
