One hundred years is a lot of life to live.
Belmont resident Preston Williams would know.
“I majored in history, so I appreciate knowing the history of the country and experiencing it as it has changed,” said Williams, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday.
When Preston and Connie Williams moved into their home on Fairmont Street in the late 1960s—just after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—they were one of the few Black families in town. The right-wing conservative John Birch Society held considerable sway on town politics, while the Fair Practices Committee, working to ensure equitable treatment of people of color, was 400-families deep.
“I was received very friendly and I made an excellent life in Belmont,” he said. “That was not the attitude of the town in general.”
According to former Belmont resident and state Rep. Anne Paulsen, Connie and Preston moved to Belmont at a time when Belmont was a “conservative, mostly homogeneous community.”
“In the early sixties, a group of like-minded people gathered together to work to expand housing opportunities for people of color in Belmont,” recalled Paulsen. That group became known as the Fair Practices Committee, for which Preston served as co-chair.
“He was an engaging person with patience and good humor, but always moving forward to the goal,” Paulsen said.
Connie explained that the committee tested landlords or realtors by first sending a white couple to ask whether the rental was available, then sending a Black couple to ask whether it was available.
“They wanted to see how friendly and open and fair the person who was renting the apartment was,” she said. “Belmont Fair Practices Committee did a great deal of testing like that in Belmont and in other places.”
Another effort, Paulsen said, that helped “move the town forward” was the committee’s Belmont-Roxbury summer camp, during which campers would spend time in both communities. Another effort, Paulsen said, was the energy that committee members put into urging the town to join the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program.
Whereas Connie grew up in the Jim Crow South, where she didn’t attend an integrated school until college, Preston grew up in the Pittsburgh area, where schools were not segregated. Although their children did not attend Belmont Public Schools, Connie served on a committee that advised the School Committee to vote to accept METCO students into the Belmont school district. She also served on the Belmont Human Rights Commission. Belmont continues to welcome METCO students.
Preston, meanwhile, served two terms as a Town Meeting member and was actively involved in the Democratic Town Committee. He still keeps up with its newsletters, he said.
“Preston was responsible for helping citizens of Belmont understand how efforts in Belmont were important in the wider community,” Paulsen said. “He was the foundation for the swing from a quite conservative political establishment to a more open and inclusive town.”
For as far as Belmont has come since Preston first moved into town — he recalled an occasion where he was profiled by a police officer who profiled him in connection with a recent string of burglaries in town (an indiscretion the police chief at the time subsequently apologized for)— there’s still a long way to go.
According to the U.S. Census, 1.6% of Belmont’s population is Black as of July 2025, compared to 0.09% in 1960.
“When people don’t live near each other, don’t know each other, they operate on what they see in the news media, which, of course, all they show – it’s the nature of the news—they show the crime in the city and unsafeness, and people tend to associate these behaviors with certain communities,” Connie said.
Preston said he is confident in the Democratic Town Committee’s efforts to address some of the racial issues that persist in Belmont. The Williams are also supporters of Belmont Against Racism.
Connie commended Preston’s legacy at the Harvard Divinity School, where he earned his doctorate in 1967 and later became its first African American faculty member. Since then, he has received several awards and served in a variety of roles, including the director of the Summer Leadership Institute from 1998 to 2008.
“It was an exciting time for us in the late ‘50s and ‘60s to live through the civil rights revolution, and Preston, at Harvard Divinity School, has taught courses on Martin Luther King all the time he’s been here,” Connie said. “Even after he retired in the early 2000s, he continued to teach one course a year, and it was his Martin Luther King seminar.”
In his time at Harvard Divinity School, he crossed paths with the likes of former President Barack Obama, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, and broadcast journalist Callie Crossley, among others. According to his wife, Obama, Warnock, and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn all sent letters recognizing Preston’s 100th birthday.
The Harvard Divinity School also recently recognized him with a celebration, as did the Beech Street Center. Both Connie and Preston acknowledged their gratitude to the transportation team at the Beech Street Center, which has not only brought them to various medical appointments but also helped Connie visit Preston while he’s at Belmont Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
According to Preston, it isn’t just 100 years he is celebrating this spring. On June 4, Preston celebrated 70 years of marriage to his wife. Together, they have two sons and two grandchildren.
If you ask the couple what the secret is to reaching 70 years together, Connie Preston isn’t sure there is one. It certainly isn’t agreeing on everything; rather, it’s having a shared set of values—even through disagreement.
“Connie has been excellent, and I made a good choice,” Preston said.
“You didn’t choose me,” she countered. “I chose you.”
