From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Williams, Henry

(died: 1908) 

Henry Williams was a marshal with the police department in Paris, KY, one of the first African Americans with the police department in Paris.

On September 18, 1908, Williams was on patrol at the Paris Colored Fair and attempted to break up a fight between James "Bud" Warren and his wife. Williams was stabbed to death by Warren. Later that night, Warren telephoned the police and asked them to come get him at the home of Dan Love on Cypress Street in Paris.

Bud Warren (1872-1911) was the son of Jane Buckner. Although he claimed his actions were in  self-defense, he was convicted of manslaughter in the Bourbon County Circuit Court in March 1909 and sentenced to eight years in the Kentucky Penitentiary. Warren had been represented by Attorney John J. Williams.

Warren died of heart disease in 1911, not too long after he got out of prison.

For more see "Stabbed to death," The Bourbon News, 9/22/1908, p. 1; "NOTICE," The Bourbon News, 3/18/1910, p. 8; and James Warren, Kentucky Death Certificate File #20036, Registered #74 (Ancestry.com).

Kentucky County & Region

Read about Bourbon County, Kentucky in Wikipedia.

Kentucky Place (Town or City)

Read about Paris, Kentucky in Wikipedia.

Item Relations

Cited in this Entry

NKAA Source: The Bourbon news (newspaper)
NKAA Source: Ancestry (online)

Related Entries Citing this Entry

NKAA Entry: Kentucky Colored Fairs

Cite This NKAA Entry:

“Williams, Henry,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed July 27, 2024, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/index.php/items/show/1675.

Last modified: 2021-02-26 20:49:04