June Vanleer Williams was a journalist, playwright, and actress in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1960s and 70s. She was also the first African American woman to be admitted to a Stanford University Journalism fellowship program in 1969.
She worked at the Cleveland Call & Post and the Cleveland Gazette. Williams wrote four plays, starred in a Broadway play, and was the casting director for the 1974 movie Claudine, starring James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll.
During her career, Williams made some meaningful connections. One of them was with Abe Saperstein. Saperstein coached the Harlem Globetrotters. Williams received many postcards from Saperstein as he toured around the world with the Globetrotters.
You can see all of these postcards, newspaper clippings, and more in the June Vanleer Williams collection available at UW’s American Heritage Center.