Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams is related to civil rights activist and historical figure Hosea Williams. Hosea was Porsha’s grandfather, and she is continuing his legacy by being an activist during the Black Lives Matter movement.
During the Instagram Live panel, Amplify Our Voices: An Open Dialogue on Being Black in America, Porsha admitted that she didn’t think she would be as politically active as her grandfather was.
However, she has always felt connected to him and felt the same passion he felt about his activism during his time.
Porsha was arrested in July during a peaceful Black Lives Matter movement protest.
During the RHOA Season 13 premiere, Porsha said her takeaway from being arrested was that she wanted to keep going to protests and fighting for civil rights.
She drew the comparison during Watch What Happens Live the next day.
“My grandfather in the Movement, he was called the bull in the china cabinet,” she shared. “He was the lieutenant in front. He was the one who would rally everybody together and get everybody enraged and passionate about the cause.
“So, me being how I am is exactly how he was. He was just as outspoken and passionate as me.”
Who was Hosea Williams?
Hosea was an influential figure in the NAACP. According to Bravo’s The Daily Dish, he worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the SCLC fighting for civil rights.
He was one of the Selma march’s primary organizers and was present on the infamous Bloody Sunday. He was present for Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and took over as the SCLC executive director.
During Amplify Our Voices, Porsha compared the police brutality black community members like George Floyd endured to her grandfather’s experience on Bloody Sunday.
“Listen, what is happening now is by design. All of this is happening because this is another opportunity for real change,” she said. “Just like when my grandfather, with Selma, when they were on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and they were walking into a restricted area. They had been told not to walk into that area, not to protest there. Period.
“When they got to the end of that bridge, it was a slaughter. It was bloody.”
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How Porsha feels Hosea would feel about the world today
Porsha explained during the Instagram Live panel that she thinks her grandfather and the other influential civil rights figures at the time would be disappointed to see the world in the same position in regards to police brutality that it was in when they were alive.
She explained that she knows that big social change like this takes awhile and that Hosea would be proud that people of all races are uniting and taking the same stand against racial discrimination that they did in their time.
Porsha revealed she believes her grandfather would be proud she’s on RHOA.
“Oh, he would love it,” she shared. “Nobody knows this. I’ve never had the chance to say this. Nobody’s ever asked, but he used to call me his peach. so it’s just crazy that I’m holding a peach on Housewives.”
#RHOA star @Porsha4Real says that her grandfather & civil rights leader Hosea Williams would have been proud to watch her on the Real Housewives: pic.twitter.com/VJJbhiFm3r
— WWHL (@BravoWWHL) June 10, 2020
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs on Sundays at 8/7c on Bravo.