‘I Love You’ Says Sister Of African American Pentagon Employee Killed 20 Years Ago On 9/11

Hundreds gathered today in New York City for the 20-year commemoration of the 9/11 attacks. The names of the 3,000 who perished were read aloud, and family and friends shared memories of their loved ones. Although it is not known definitively how many African Americans were killed, Cecelia Richard was one as were Michael Richards and Major Dwayne Williams.

Richard’s sister spoke at today’s ceremony, saying, “I remember this day as if it was yesterday. You are greatly missed by our mother, your sisters, your nieces, your nephews. [From where I worked at EPA] I could see the smoke, and I couldn’t believe that … that you’re gone. I just want to say, ‘I love you, and we miss you.’”

Cecelia E. Richard worked at the Pentagon.  She was 41 when she died. According to the memorial website established by the Pentagon, Richard graduated from the Job Corps in 1980 with a certificate in accounting. At the time of her death, she had 21 years of federal government service.

Michael Richards

Michael Richards was an artist who had a studio in the World Trade Center. Richards was born in Brooklyn and was of Jamaican and Costa Rican descent. In the first exhibition of Richards’ work since his tragic death on September 11, 2001, the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art hosted a show in April 2021 that included sculptures and drawings Richards finished between 1990 and 2001. The exhibition, entitled “Are You Down?,” took its name from one of the last pieces Richards completed before his death.

In his work, Richards explored themes of racial inequality and inclusion. One of the works included in the show recalls the beating of Rodney King. It features an image of King “transferred onto” the forehead of a bust. According to the Miami New Times, “the entire head and neck rotate endlessly – never pausing, never resting – on a motorized metal arm affixed to a pedestal that reads, “A Loss of Faith Brings Vertigo.” Twenty years later, American grappled with another searing case of police brutality: the murder of George Floyd.

Major Dwayne Williams

Major Dwayne Williams died when the terrorists flew a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11. Williams was an Alabama native.

As the nation paused to remember the deadliest attack on American soil, Roy Williams talked about his brother’s tragic death and the division in the nation.

“It’s amazing how our nation has changed,” Williams told a Birmingham TV station. “In the aftermath of 9/11, we saw unprecedented unity in the midst of our deepest sorrow. Republicans and Democrats put aside their political differences. We weren’t red states and blue states. We were the United States. People weren’t thinking about color. It wasn’t Black, white and Latino. It was red, white and blue as we all wrapped ourselves in the colors of the American flag. We put aside differences, realizing that our nation was under attack and we needed to rally together. Twenty years later, it’s as if we forgot that lesson that we learned on 9/11.”

Major Williams was 40 years old when he died. He had been in the Army for 18 years and had only been at the Pentagon for three months when the terrorist attack occurred. He has two buildings named in his honor: one at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and another at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Williams was also a husband and father of two.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks ushered in an era defined by an ongoing multi-pronged global war against terrorists who have spawned cells in numerous countries including the United States, made al Qaeda and ISIS household names and introduced the persistent psychic noise of another attack into the nation’s consciousness.