By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
Unsung hero and often forgotten Birmingham Industrial League baseball legend Oscar “Butler” Williams was remembered and celebrated on Tuesday by the Negro Southern League Museum (NSLM) in partnership with District 2 Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson.
Every year the Center for Negro League Baseball Research (CNLBR) and NSLM present a Forgotten Hero Award to overlooked players while highlighting their accomplishments. Williams, who died in 2005 at the age of 70, was this year’s recipient.
Over more than 50 years in baseball, Williams became a cornerstone of the Industrial League, a Birmingham institution that shaped generations of players.
Community members, local leaders, former players and family gathered in a foyer outside the Jefferson County Commission chambers on the second floor of the downtown Courthouse during the unveiling of a special exhibit for Williams. It included historic images and interpretive materials curated by the CNLBR, founded by historian Dr. Layton Revel.
“Baseball is a team game and preserving the legacy and the history of baseball is a team effort. It takes all of us,” said Revel. “I think the thing that people need to remember about the Birmingham Industrial League, it goes back to the 1890s. Baseball from the 1890s to today was an important part of the Birmingham community.”
Baseball has always occupied a unique place in Birmingham’s Black history—a thread woven through generations of families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. The sport was one of the primary arenas where Black talent, leadership, and pride could flourish.
Revel added, “It was an important part of everyone’s life, the companies that sponsored it, and over the years the Birmingham Industrial League has brought up a significant number of players who went to play in the Negro leagues, that went on to play in organized baseball. It’s preserving the history of the game and [Williams] spent over 50 years of his life dedicated to it … “
Those in attendance included two of his sons, Oscar Williams Jr. and Richmond Williams, and his great- grandson, Jarvis Williams, who were presented with a plaque by Tyson. Jarvis Williams said his great grandfather’s legacy carries on.
“We are still actively playing out at Ensley Park using the ‘Butler Bombers’ to respect his name,” said Jarvis Williams. “Growing up, we pushed the issue for baseball … it’s important to keep these stories alive because a lot of the kids in Black neighborhoods have forgotten about baseball. It’s great for the kids. It’s great for the public to understand what’s going on to also see that it can be great things done within baseball.”
A standout football player and member of the Miles College Athletic Hall of Fame, Oscar “Butler” Williams built an equally impressive career in baseball—one that spanned more than half a century and left a lasting mark on the city’s sports culture.
The Industrial League, founded in the late 1800s amid segregation and later evolving into a community-based system, served as far more than a recreational outlet. It was a proving ground—where elite-level athletes sharpened their abilities and often advanced to careers in Major League Baseball, the Negro Major Leagues, or high-performing industrial and military teams.
Honoring Williams is “an acknowledgment not only of one man’s achievements, but of a community’s heritage,” Tyson said on Tuesday.
