Bill Saunders

William ("Bill") Saunders, a community and Civil Rights activist in Charleston, South Carolina, was an organizer and lead negotiator of the Charleston Hospital Stike of 1969. In 1970, Saunders established the Committee on Better Racial Assurance (COBRA) to address race-related community problems and provide assistance to community members in need. He also operated the AM radio station WPAL from 1972-1998.

At the age of eighteen months, he moved to Johns Island, South Carolina to live with his maternal grandparents. There, he grew up working on his grandparents' farm and on others in the area. He attended Mt. Zion Elementary School on Johns Island and Burke High School on the Charleston peninsula.

Biography
In 1951, Saunders joined the United States Army and fought in the Korean War until the summer of 1952.

During the 1960s, Saunders became involved in the Civil Rights movement in Charleston, organizing an armed self-defense group and publishing a radical newspaper called the Lowcountry Newsletter. He participated in the 1969 Hospital Workers' Strike and helped negotiate the resolutions to this strike. In the 1970, Saunders established the Committee on Better Racial Assurance (COBRA), an organization whose primary purpose is to mediate problems and facilitate communication within the Charleston community. In addition, COBRA assists underprivileged citizens through various programs, gaining particular attention for its Sickle Cell Anemia awareness program.

In 1972, Saunders became the co-owner of AM radio station WPAL, the first radio station to return to the air after Hurricane Hugo. He became the sole proprietor of the station in 1985 and continued to operate WPAL until 1998.

Saunders ran for South Carolina Senate in 1980, and held a ten-year tenure on the Public Service Commission of South Carolina from 1994 to 2004. In 2004, William "Bill" Saunders returned to the full-time administration of COBRA.

He was also a former joint owner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing team Hall of Fame Racing, along with fellow former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, Staubach, former quarterbacks, were the front men for a team that was formed by Saunders at the start of the 2006 season.