Charles E. Williams

PhD Student. Social Work/Sociology - Race & Ethnicity Candidate

Charles E. Williams II is the Pastor of the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit and the Michigan Chair of the National Action Network. He can often be heard on Sirius XM channel 126 as the co-host of 'Keeping it Real’ with Rev. Al Sharpton.

Charles is engaged in research at the University of Michigan in the Center on Assets, Education and Inclusion and at Poverty Solutions. His research interests include poverty, inequality, health disparities, and the intersection of race and religion.

Charles enjoys training for marathons, sailing, and spending time with his wife, Angela, and their two young children.

Dissertation Title

**Accepted a position at UT Arlington
Healing Balm: Black Women, Black Churches, and Du Boisian Pathways to Health Equity

Contact Information

Education

  • 2026 PhD Social Work & Sociology
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • 2024 MDiv
    Ecumenical Theological Seminary
  • 2019 MSW Social Policy and Evaluation
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
  • 2017 BS Political Science and African American Studies
    Eastern Michigan University

Activities

Websites

Publications

Alexis, D. A., Williams, C. E. II, Johnson, O. L., Newman-Casey, P. A., Piatt, G. A., & Elam, A. R. (2025). Barriers and facilitators of implementing a community and faith-based intervention to increase eye care utilization in Black Americans. American Journal of Ophthalmology, 277, 96-111.
Cross, F. L., Williams, C. E., Esqueda, A. P., Hunt, R., Ku, C. P., Lucio, J., Bailey, S., Williamson, S., Marsh, E. E., & Resnicow, K. (2025). Incentivizing Immunity: Black and Latinx individuals' attitudes about COVID-19 vaccine incentives. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Williams, C. E. II. (2025). Investing in resilience: A comparative study of black church survival in underserved Detroit. Religions, 16(9), 1182.
Cross, F. L., Esqueda, A. P., Ku, C. P., Hunt, R., Lucio, J., Williams, C. E. II, Bailey, S., Williamson, S., Marsh, E. E., & Resnicow, K. (2024). "Life as We Knew It": Continued challenges in getting up-to-date COVID-19 vaccinations amongst Black and Latinx Michigan residents. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 12(5), 3556-3567.
Buyuktur, A. G., Cross, F. L., Platt, J., Aramburu, J., Movva, P., Zhao, Z., Cornwall, T., Hunt, R., McCollum, J. A., Reyes, A., Williams, C. E. II, Ramakrishnan, A., Israel, B., Marsh, E. E., & Woolford, S. J. (2024). Communities conquering COVID-19: Black and Latinx community perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 in regions of Michigan hardest hit by the pandemic. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 8(1), Article e210.

Honors and Awards

Year Description
2021 Chair of the Bipartisan Protect Michigan Commission African American Workgroup

Presentations

Year Description
2023 Williams, C.E. II (2023) Sweet Potato Pie and Pumpkin Pie: Dubosian and Weberian Racial Differences in Religion, Association for the Sociology of Religion 84th Annual Meeting
2023 Williams, C.E. II (2023) A Discussion about the Obligation of Religion Scholars to the Communities, Society for the Scientific Student of Religion, Baltimore, MD
2022 Williams, C.E. II (2022) Black Mamas Matter: Understanding Facilitators and Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccines, American Public Health Association, Boston, MA
2021 Williams, C.E. II (2021) MLK Panelist: Maladjustment: Doing Business Differently in Detroit in a COVID-19 Pandemic Era, Institute for Social Research, Population Studies Center Ann Arbor, Virtual
2019 Williams, C.E. II (2019) "'Its So Cold in the D:' Black Community Survival of Utility Shutoffs in Detroit, Oxford University Symposium on Religion, Margaret Thatcher Center at Somerville College, Oxford, England

Courses

Past Courses

Title Instructor Term Course Section Meeting Start Meeting End
Program Evaluation and Applied Research Williams, Charles E. Winter 2024 003 02:00 pm 05:00 pm View Course