By Eleni Balakrishnan
Above: The home of Terry Williams near Alamo Square after it was gutted by a fire on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Photo by Eleni Balakrishnan.
Just weeks after he began receiving racist threats delivered to his doorstep, both of Terry Williams’ parents had to be rescued from their home after a sudden fire this morning engulfed the building in flames.
Williams’ mother, who is nearly 80, had to be carried out of the building, and his father was rescued as he was trying to escape the building, according to San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Lt. Jonathan Baxter. The fire department received the call about the fire at 11:31 a.m. and arrived shortly thereafter.
“They stopped me as I was trying to get her out,” said Williams, who was not home when the fire started. Neither was his nephew, who also lives in the building.
Nearly an hour after the fire broke out, Williams was still standing outside with his two rottweilers, staring up at his childhood home as the dozen fire vehicles and 40 firefighters working to control the blaze, occasionally throwing up his hands to his head in despair. At one point a firefighter shook Williams’ hand and said, “We tried our best, man.”
Neighbors who had gathered at the scene came by to reassure and console Williams, offering him a place to stay or a meal.
The conflagration came just three weeks after Williams, who is Black, first received mail at his home featuring racist slurs: Two packages were sent to Williams containing a caricatured Golliwog-like doll with a noose around its neck. The first doll, received in late April, was scribbled with racist epithets — the n-word, “Sambo,” and other, archaic terms — and threatened Williams directly: There is a “target on your back,” a message on the doll read.
Williams then received a second, very similar doll in early May featuring Ku Klux Klan imagery and more threats: “We will continute to exterminate you n— slaves!” the doll read.
The police have not made any arrests in the investigation, which they classified as a hate crime. Williams also filed a report with the FBI after he received additional threats in the mail. Supervisor Dean Preston, who was also at the scene of the fire, has a resolution condemning the racist acts up for a vote at the Board of Supervisors this afternoon.
“How dare they, whoever they are, come and attack my elderly parents?” said Letisha Humphrey, Williams’ older sister, who lives in Bayview.
“I thought I smelled something,” said Daniel Sieberling, who is an old friend and neighbor of Williams, whom he said he can wave to from his window. He wiped away tears as he described the scene: “It came up quick.”
Before he knew it, Seiberling saw the flames coming out of the windows, then Williams’ mother being carried out of the building. Another neighbor said she saw Williams’ father get slightly burned on his head as he attempted to leave the building.
More than two hours after the fire was reported, firefighters were still pulling charred and smoking debris out of the home.
Baxter said the fire department has opened an investigation into the fire, as it does with any fire that has no obvious cause, or that involves rescues or injuries.
He said one of the residents is in serious condition, but did not confirm which person it was. The house next door, which had a “No to racism” sign in the window, was slightly damaged but will be inhabitable later today.
Williams’ home, however, was charred on the inside.
Anti-Black crimes make up the lion’s share of hate crimes reported in California, according to the state attorney general’s report on hate crimes for 2022, the latest year for which data was available. Anti-Black incidents made up some 31 percent of all hate crimes reported in the state, and half of those driven by racial animus. The number of anti-Black incidents grew some 27 percent from the previous year.
In the aftermath of both prior incidents, Williams, 49, said he and his family were scared for their lives. His family has been in the neighborhood for decades and Williams was born and raised there; he runs a dog-walking business and is a regular at the park where he is known as the “Mayor of Alamo Square” by locals.
His elderly parents lived in the unit above him. But after Williams received the racist packages, he asked both of them to leave the city for their safety and said he has been keeping track of his nephew’s whereabouts, too.
More than 100 neighbors rallied around Williams in mid-May, saying they were appalled by the racist threats. The Rev. Amos Brown, the president of the local NAACP chapter, condemned the “bigotry, nooses, Black dolls and all the paraphernalia” that were still targeting Black people; Preston, who represents the area, donated $1,000 to a fundraiser in Williams’ name.
The Alamo Square area, despite its proximity to the historically Black Fillmore, is a majority white neighborhood: The census tracts immediately surrounding the park are about 54 percent white and just 10 percent Black.
This is a developing story. Head to Mission Local to follow updates as more information becomes available.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
