Camilla Williams was born on October 18, 1919 in Danville Virginia. She earned a Bachelor's of Science degree in music education from Virginia State University and in 1943 she won the first Marian Anderson Award which was established by the African-American opera singer to support young singers. In 1946 she was the first African American to get a contract with the New York City Opera singing the lead role of Madame Butterfly . She married Charles T. Beaver (a civil rights lawyer who worked with Malcolm X) in 1950. Other notable points in her career included being a guest of President Eisenhower in 1960 at the White House where she performed for the crown prince of Japan during his state visit, and on August 28, 1963 as part of the Civil Right March on Washington singing the Star Spangled Banner at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. for 200,000 people before Martin Luther King's famed "I have a dream" speech.

Camilla Williams' teaching career began with a faculty position at Brooklyn College as a professor of voice from 1970 to 1973 and Queens College from 1974 to 1977. She came to Indiana University in 1977 and became the first African-American professor of voice at the Jacobs School of Music. In 1984 she was also the first African-American to teach at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

She received numerous honors and awards over the years including: the Art, Culture and Civic Guild Award for her contribution to music in 1962, the Harlem Opera and World Fellowship Society Award in 1963, and in 1971 her hometown of Danville, Virginia designated a park in her name. Furthermore, in 1995 she was the inaugural recipient of the National Opera Association's "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award and the following year Harvard University named her as an Outstanding African American Singer and Pioneer. Indiana University awarded her with the President's Medal for Excellence in 2009. She retired officially from university duties in 1997, but continued to teach privately until her death in January 2012.