Exhibit opens featuring Pender County playwright, screenwriter and actor Samm-Art Williams

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Black History Month recognizes the triumphs and struggles of African Americans and a new exhibit at the Pender County Library is honoring a very accomplished man, town native Samm-Art Williams.

Samuel Arthur Williams was born in Burgaw in 1946.

After graduating from Morgan State University in Baltimore, he planned to become a lawyer, but he followed his passion to become a playwright and actor instead.

He appeared in several stage and TV roles, including the runaway slave Jim in the 1986 PBS production of Huckleberry Finn.

Williams also appeared on the big screen in the Coen Brothers’ first feature film, Blood Simple.

But his biggest impact was behind the scenes when his play Home became a Tony Award-nominated Broadway production in 1980.

Williams’ writing then took him to the West Coast where he served as executive producer of the hit show Martin and co-executive producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990’s.

His cousin Sandy Shepard said it was special seeing what Williams achieved.

“Samm was just, it was just unbelievable that someone to come on that level, that magnitude of life, and have gained so many goals and accomplishments and wind up like he did, as he was,” Shepard said. “Very successful, well-loved, and caring.”

But despite his success, Shepard added that Williams never bragged about it.

“But it’s hard to find a person of this magnitude that identified himself as being humble and he knew he was humble, in his own way.”

Childhood friend Cheryl Beatty said Williams often had her transcribe materials for him.

“I keyed a lot of his rough drafts for a play, I would do a lot of things for him that he didn’t want anyone to know that he was behind it,” Beatty said. “I would do some research.”

Beatty said Williams was a great person to be around.

“He was a giant, he was a gentle giant. So I call him “The Man that Lived in the House by the Side of the Road, by the Side of the Highway of Life” because he was a friend to man.”

Williams never forgot where he came from, often citing his time in Pender County as inspiration for the characters he wrote.

For example, the Fresh Prince’s Uncle Phil was born in Yamacraw, an unincorporated area of Pender County. 

Beatty hopes the exhibit inspires other young people who may come from humble beginnings but aspire to accomplish great things.

“It’s a legacy for the others to realize that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you can do anything you want to do, but it’s self-determination, it comes from within.”

Williams passed away last May at the age of 78.

But his legacy continues to live on, as less than a month later, the play that made him famous, Home, began its revival production on Broadway.

The Samm-Art Williams exhibit will be on display at the Pender County Library through the end of the month.

It will then be moved to the Pender County Museum and expanded to show more items.

That exhibit will then be on display through April 30th.