His wife, Marian, confirmed the death. Mr. Williams was a moderate Democrat who represented the largely minority Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East Flatbush and Crown Heights for five terms, from 1978 to 1997. As chairman of the Council’s Health Committee during his last term, he was a principal force behind the law that in 1994 banned smoking in restaurants, offices and many outdoor locations. The same year, when Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani proposed selling city hospitals to private companies, Mr. Williams was a leader in taking the administration to court. In its lawsuit, the Council argued that the mayor had overstepped his authority in proposing the sale of hospitals in Coney Island and other neighborhoods. The Court of Appeals, New York State’s highest court, agreed. Mr. Williams, who had opposed a series of gay rights bill in the 1980s, drew protests from gay activists after being quoted by The New York Post as saying that the city had helped spread AIDS by “condoning homosexuality.” Despite Mr. Williams’s insistence that he had been misquoted, activists interrupted a Council meeting with demands for his resignation and shouts of “Help me! I’m dying” and “You are killing us!” He countered that as the representative of minority communities, he felt compelled to question whether gay groups were getting more federal and state resources than black and Hispanic agencies that served populations in which AIDS had become rampant. “I fully recognize that gay and lesbian civil rights do not cause AIDS,” he told a news conference. “Ignorance causes AIDS.” Mr. Williams was also publicly criticized for opposing a public health program that had been set up to inhibit the spread of AIDS by distributing clean needles to drug users. He said he worried that free needles would encourage drug use. Enoch Hill Williams was born in Wilmington, N.C., on June 21, 1927. His father died when he was very young, and his mother took him to live in Harlem. He served in the Army during World War II and the Korean War. He received a bachelor’s degree in business management from Long Island University and studied urban renewal at New York University and the New School. He then ran a coin laundry business and a church housing program. Mr. Williams held the rank of major general in the New York Guard, the part of the state militia responsible for military jobs within the state. He was the first black person to command one of the four active units of the state militia. Mr. Williams was for many years the civilian director of the selective service system in New York City. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention three times and in 2008 was one of 27 presidential electors in Florida. His first marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons, Kamau Bandele Kokayi and Robert Williams; his daughter, Chareese Adamson; his stepson, Derrick Johnson; his stepdaughter, Yolonda Johnson; 17 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
