Hosea Lorenzo Williams (January 5, 1926 – November 16, 2000) was a United States civil rights leader, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician. He may be best known as a trusted member of fellow famed civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr.'s inner circle. Under the banner of their flagship organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King depended on Williams to organize and stir masses of people into nonviolent direct action in myriad protest campaigns they waged against racial, political, economic, and social injustice. King alternately referred to Williams, his chief field lieutenant, as his "bull in a china closet" and his "Castro".
Inspired by personal experience with and his vow to continue King's work for the poor, Williams may be equally well known as the founding president of one of the largest social services organizations for the poor and hungry on holidays in North America, Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless. His famous motto was "Unbought and Unbossed" (which was also the motto of former U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York City).
In the Hebrew Bible, Hosea (/ˌhoʊˈziːə/ or /hoʊˈzeɪə/; Hebrew: הוֹשֵׁעַ, Modern Hoshea, Tiberian Hôšēăʻ ; "Salvation"; Greek Ὠσηέ, Hōsēe), son of Beeri, was an 8th century BC prophet in Israel who authored the book of prophecies bearing his name. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament. Hosea is often seen as a "prophet of doom", but underneath his message of destruction is a promise of restoration. The Talmud (Pesachim 87a) claims that he was the greatest prophet of his generation. The period of Hosea's ministry extended to some sixty years and he was the only prophet of Israel of his time who left any written prophecy.
The name "Hosea", meaning "salvation", or "He saves", or "He helps", seems to have been not uncommon, being derived from the auspicious verb from which we have the frequently recurring word "salvation". It may be a contraction of a larger form of which the divine name (YHWH) or its abbreviation formed a part, so as to signify "YHWH helps". According to Numbers 13:8, 13:16 that was the original name of Joshua, son of Nun, until Moses gave him the longer, theophoric name Yehoshua, "YHWH is salvation".
Hosea is an inkhundla of Swaziland, located in the Shiselweni District. Its population as of the 2007 census was 19,608.
Coordinates: 27°07′12″S 31°24′43″E / 27.120°S 31.412°E / -27.120; 31.412
Hosea is a genus of flowering plant in the Lamiaceae family, first described in 1908. It contains only one known species, Hosea lobbii. It is endemic to the Island of Borneo (Sultanate of Brunei + Sarawak region of Malaysia).