William Walker Phillips was born on August 22, 1886 in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Phillips was owner and operator of the American Cafe in Graham, North Carolina. On the night of July 19, 1920, he and two others—James A. Ray and Clem William Bradshaw—were shot by national guard soldiers with the Durham Machine Gun Company when they (the soldiers) opened fire on a lynch mob attempting to jailbreak Black men accused of sexual assault. An official investigation ensued, and the official findings of the investigating committee found that Ray, Bradshaw, and Phillips were not part of the mob but were onlookers who got caught in the crossfire. He died in Graham on October 4, 1948.