Williams files for Dist. 30 seat
Robin Williams … she ain’t no joke!
This seasoned and savvy, 35-year career, not-for-profit community leader seeks to unseat Indiana Dist. 30 State Rep. Mike Karickhoff (R) in the upcoming November election. Driven by her passionate support for education, job creation, civil rights, women’s rights, the arts, and quality of life concerns, Williams is ready to tackle the issues and speak truth to power.
“It’s a crucial time to make critical decisions about education, for instance,” asserts Williams, a former educator. “Teachers should be empowered to teach the truth, rather than being imprisoned by politics.”
It’s no surprise that Williams is making the official announcement of her candidacy on the first day of Black History Month, as she has been a lifelong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. As a journalist, Williams’ coverage of civil rights and race issues have been published in the Martin Luther King Jr. legacy publication SCLC National Magazine and in the New York Times. Her historical account of the Black Indian culture was installed at the library of the Smithsonian Institute in 2018.
During her career, Williams has spearheaded and managed several government-funded arts and cultural institutions in the Midwest and South, including Garfield Park Arts Center for the City of Indianapolis, the New Orleans Jazz Institute at the UNO-Louisiana State University, and Fulton County, GA’s newest Arts Center in Southwest Atlanta.
In 2018, Williams relocated back to Kokomo, where her family has played an integral role in agriculture, business, and the arts in the Howard County area for the last 170 years. She was inspired to take the political baton of her late father, Mel Ligon, who died in the middle of his 1994 US Congressional, 5th District campaign in Kokomo.
“My father was an ‘old school Republican,’ back in the days when those values actually meant something,” recalls Williams of her father, a former bureau chief for Radio Press International at the United Nations. “He taught me to care about and advocate for people who did not have a voice. I intend to finish what he started and do just that for the people of Dist. 30.”
Williams holds a B.A.S. in Music Business from Indiana University-Bloomington and a M.A. in Worship Studies from Liberty University. Williams currently serves on the board of the Kokomo Art Association, Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance Creative Placemaking Council, and was recently designated as the Howard County representative for the Regional Arts Council for the Arts Federation in Lafayette.