Willard Ransom chose to follow in his father’s footsteps becoming a pioneer in the civil rights movement in Indianapolis.

As a result of this experience, he reorganized the state chapter of the NAACP, encouraging people across the state to take direct action for civil rights.

In addition to serving five terms as chairman of the state NAACP, he was legal counsel to blacks in the Indianapolis fire and police departments, director of National City Bank of Indiana, and a board member of the Madame C. J. Walker Urban Life Center.

Ransom was founding member of the Concerned Ministers of Indianapolis, he received the organization’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 1993 for his dedicated work in the civil rights movement.

Willard Ransom died in Indianapolis on November 7, 1995, at the age of 79.