Roland Leander Williams, Jr. was the great-grandson of an American slave and was raised on Race Street in Philadelphia. He earned his BA and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Williams taught at Penn, the University of Delaware, and The Ohio State University prior to beginning his work as Assistant Professor of English at Temple University in 1995. He was later promoted to Associate Professor, Professor, and Chairperson of the English Department.

Roland Williams was a scholar of African American culture and cinema. He was the author of African American Autobiography and the Quest for Freedom and Black Male Frames: African Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema (1903-2003). He has also written articles for African American Authors, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, and Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Professor Williams has also contributed essays and reviews to African American Review, the Journal of Modern Literature, Research in African Literatures, the MLA Approaches to Teaching Series, and the Journal of American Folklore.