Townsend, William Henry
William Henry (Bill) Townsend was the first African American licensed optometrist in Arkansas and was a leading figure in the civil rights movement. He was a founding member of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations (ACHR) and the Council on Community Affairs (COCA), and he served as one of the first Black representatives of the twentieth century in the Arkansas General Assembly. Bill Townsend was born on July 30, 1914, on a farm in West Point, Mississippi, to John Henry Townsend and Fannie Caruthers Townsend, the oldest of eleven children. He was raised in Earle (Crittenden County) and later attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama for high school and undergraduate studies. He earned a BS in agriculture. Townsend enlisted in …
