Gerald Williams made the move to Washington DC in 1974, attending Howard University as a graduate student. Experimenting further while maintaining continuity with AFRICOBRA ideals, Williams produced a number of freeform, hand-block silkscreens, including Emerge, Power and the Will to Prevail, and Big Payback Get Ready. These experimental works are a bridge between Williams's early artistic endeavors and the revelations he would have in subsequent years, while participating as a United States delegate to FESTAC 77, in Lagos, Nigeria, along with other members of AFRICOBRA; to his years in the Peace Corps working as Pre-vocational Director in the Jacaranda School for the Mentally Handicapped in Nairobi, Kenya; to his decades directing arts and crafts centers on American Air Force bases in Japan, Italy, South Korea, the Azores, and South Carolina.