William H. Gray III (1941-2013) was a community activist, Baptist minister, and politician. Gray's activism started in 1970 when he successfully sued a landlord who refused to rent to him because of his race. In 1972, Gray returned to his hometown of Philadelphia and became the minister at Bright Hope Church, like his father and grandfather before him. Gray was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1978, representing a largely Black district in West Philadelphia. He won re-election several times before resigning from Congress in 1991 to head the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), a higher education support organization for minorities, serving as president and CEO until 2004. In his Congressional career, Gray fiercely defended spending on social programs, advocated for greater US aid to African nations, and became the first Black chairperson of the Budget Committee and the first Black Majority Whip. In 1994, Gray served as President Clinton’s special advisor on Haiti during its civil war, and received a Medal of Honor from the Haitian president for his efforts restoring democratic rule.

This image shows William Gray speaking in Seattle at Microsoft's Minority Student Day, an annual event established by Black employees to encourage minority high school students to complete their education and enter careers in tech.

Caption information source: "GRAY, William Herbert, III," United States House of Representatives, retrieved from https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/14072
Caption information source: "Minority students meet technology face to face," by John Iwasaki, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 27, 1995, page C1.