In 1964 Williams began his career in Education as an English teacher at Jackson P. Burley High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. After receiving his doctorate, he became the Coordinator of Secondary Education at Howard University from 1972 to 1978. In 1978 he served as a Senior Research Scientist and Curriculum Designer for Lawrence Johnson & Associates, Inc. In 1980 he served briefly as a Supervisor of Instruction for the D.C. Public School System, and later became the Dean of Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1983 he became the Assistant Principal at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.