RIDGELAND, Miss. – There were no race-based signs posted along Mississippi’s Pearl River in the early 1950s, where a 6-year-old African-American boy, his mother and grandmother would congregate with fellow fishermen and women who were blind to color.
“When we used to go fishing we would have groups go of all races down on the river,” recalled Alfred Williams, who became the first African-American to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic in 1983.
The Pearl River, the main waterway leading to Ross Barnett Reservoir, was a place where racial barriers were washed away. There would be up to a dozen people lining the river’s edge. The fish were shared and bread was broken.
“Together the whole group, black and white, would catch as many fish as we could to put food on the table.”
The fish did not always jump on young Alfred’s hook. After struggling for a day, searching for a tug on his cane pole from channel cats, an older white gentleman walked up to him and said, “This is the hole you should be fishing in, I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.”
Just as the blues bridged a soulful sound between musicians of different races, a cane pole and a little advice would have Alfred Williams in tune.
“Fishing was a way of bringing people together in a time of racial tension,” said Williams, now 70 years old. “We were able to socialize with people that we might not else see in public.”
After a few years he would turn in his cane pole to find some “sport” in his fishing.
“Catching perch wasn’t doing it for me anymore,” said Williams. “The first Bassmaster magazine I got, I must have read it until the writing came off the page.”
After an 18-month tour in Vietnam, during which he survived the Tet Offensive, the Army-veteran purchased a 50-horsepower runabout boat and took his talents from beyond the spillway to the Reservoir.
“Are you catching bream?” A man asked Williams one day. “That was their first thought, they had never seen an African-American catching bass,” Williams said.
In the 1970s the locals would soon have a second thought, when Williams notched the first of his more than 200 tournament victories on Ross Barnett Reservoir. This included a monumental B.A.S.S. [Nation] win that made him the first African-American to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic in 1983 on the Ohio River.
Before he ever thought of becoming a full-time touring pro or dreamed of making the Classic, Williams entered his first bass fishing tournament in 1975, the Have-a-Heart Association Bass Classic with a field of 210 participants.
“I got the application and thought, ‘Man I want to fish this tournament.’ I had never fished a tournament before,” Williams said.
“So I got the application, called the tournament director, and I told him ‘I want to fish your tournament.’ And he said ‘We’ll be glad to have you.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna tell you I’m black, and if it’s going to create a problem — me participating in this — I won’t even worry about it.’
“His response was one I will never forget, ‘Look this is for the Heart Association. It’s for everybody. If you want to fish the tournament, sign up to fish the tournament. If anybody has anything to say about it, you come to me.’
“You know, bass fishing was like golf in the early days, you just didn’t see a lot of African-Americans doing it.”
Williams and his wife, Gracie, attended the annual gala the Heart Association held the night before tournament.
“We walked in to the ballroom and it gets quiet, real quiet,” Williams recalled, being the only two African-Americans in attendance.
The initial reaction from the other competitors and their wives was short-lived.
“Suddenly, this gentleman walks up to the table and said, ‘Alfred you don’t know me, but you are always fishing behind my house on the reservoir, and I always see you catching bass … would you and your wife like to come have dinner with us?’
“Like that, the ice was broken in the whole room because this was the vice-president of a large car dealership.”
In the tournament Williams drew avid hunter and fisherman Perry Lee Dunn, former Ole Miss football great, and finished 33rd, a few places from making a check.
“After that tournament, I was hooked. All I could think about was ‘what is the next tournament I can possibly get in?’” Williams said of his excitement.
Williams eventually became the first four-time winner of the Have-a-Heart Classic.
In the eight years separating his first tournament and his Bassmaster Classic bid, Williams notched 10 top 10 finishes in tournaments with fields of more than 50-boats and upwards to 300.
While juggling work and fishing, Williams was faced with a difficult decision after learning his state B.A.S.S. Nation team had qualified for a chance to make the Classic qualifier tournament on Ross Barnett.
“I called in sick a few days, to my boss at the U.S. Postal Service, so I could fish that tournament,” he said.
A few days later, with a bid to the Bassmaster Classic in hand, Williams’ smiling face was printed on the front page of the Jackson Clarion newspaper – to which his postmaster happened to subscribe.
Williams wasn’t fired but he did eventually switch to part-time with the Postal Service so he could pursue a career in professional bass fishing.
In the 1983 Classic, Larry Nixon ended up winning on a stingy Ohio River with 18-pounds, 1-ounce. Williams edged out Hank Parker for the final spot in the Top 10.
“I never set out to be the first, it just happened that way,” Williams said, referring to his becoming the first African-American to qualify for the Classic. “I loved catching fish, and I knew I could catch them with the best of them.”
“We spent that whole week together [at the Classic], times I will never forget,” he recalled about the 42-angler Classic field.
Williams went on to become the first full-time touring African-American bass angler, fishing both Bassmaster and FLW tournaments, and receiving a full-sponsorship from Ranger boats from 1988 through 2003.
“I’ve always been treated with respect in the bass fishing community.
“…And the fish, well, they don’t care if you’re black or white.”