Bill Greene was born in 1930 in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended the University of Michigan, and served in the U.S. Army. Bill Greene was a freedom rider during the Civil Rights Movement and was jailed in Mississippi. A Democrat representing South Los Angeles, served in the Assembly from 1967 to 1975. He succeeded his close friend, Mervyn M. Dymally. In 1975, when then Senator Mervyn Dymally won election as state Lieutenant Governor, Bill Greene won his election to represent Dymally’s former Senate district. He served in the Senate until 1992. Bill Greene served as chair of the Senate Industrial Relations Committee. He became an expert on labor and workers’ compensation insurance issues. Before his election to the Assembly, Bill Greene was the first African American to serve as a Clerk of the Assembly. With deep roots in civil rights activism and union advocacy, he made major contributions to the fields of education, childcare, employment, and equal rights. He retired from the Senate in 1992, and died December 2, 2002. He was 72 years old.