Robert F. Williams, "Black Power," and The Roots of The African American Freedom Struggle - by Timothy B. Tyson

Robert F. Williams, "Black Power," and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle Author(s): Timothy B.
Tyson Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 85, No. 2 (Sep., 1998), pp. 540-570 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2567750 . Accessed: 18/11/2011 13:48
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F Williams,"BlackPower;' Robert and the Rootsof the African AmericanFreedom Struggle
Timothy B. Tyson in 1949, "Thechildhood ofSoutherners, white andcolored," Lillian Smith wrote inMonroe, "hasbeenlived ontrembling For oneblack earth." boy North Carolina, in 1936.Standing theearth first shook on a Saturday on thesidewalk on morning Main Street, Robert Franklin Williams witnessed the battering of an African Thepoliceman, American woman bya white policeman. Jesse Alexander Helms, "hadthesharpest shoein town mind it." an admirer andhe didn't recalled, using The policeofficer's son,Sen.Jesse Helms, remembered "Big Jesse" as "a six-foot, I smiled." two-hundred Whenhe said, 'Smile,' poundgorilla. Eleven-year-old in terror as BigJesse woman his Robert Williams watched flattened theblack with fist andthen arrested her. Years later, Williams described the scene: Helms "dragged herdress herhead,thesameway heroff to thenearby that a jailhouse, up over cavemanwould hissexual He recalled clubanddrag prey." "her tortured screams as herflesh wasground from oftheconcrete." The memory of away thefriction this violent and ofthelaughter ofwhite haunted Williams. spectacle bystanders American thedeferential African menon thestreet that Perhaps way responded more "Theemasculated waseven black menhungtheir heads deeply troubling. in shame from andhurried silently thecruelly bizarre sight," Williams recalled.1
B. Tyson is assistant of Afro-American studiesat the University Timothy professor of Wisconsin-Madison. I am grateful me interviews, in itsprepto thosewhogranted readdrafts of thisarticle, or otherwise assisted AmiriBaraka, Jean aration:Susan Armeny, JulianBond, David S. Cecelski,WilliamH. Chafe,Alex Charns, Kevin Gaines, David Garrow, Adam Fairclough, Comstock, John Dittmer, JamesForman, RaymondGavins, Glenda ElizabethGilmore, Lawrence Goodwyn, Christina Greene,Gwendolyn MidloHall, Herbert Hill, Gerald Danielle McGuire,Nellie McKay,KatherineMellen, Lorraine Perri Horne, Stephen Kantrowitz, Messinger, Morgan, SydNathans,David Nord,CharlesPayne,Richard Ralston, SidneyRittenberg, Robert Rubin,Kalamu M. Hope Tyson, HerdThompson, Martha B. Tyson, SamuelH. Tyson, yaSalaam, John Vernon C. Tyson, WilliamL. A. Warren, VanDeburg,Stephen Patrick MabelR. CraigWerner, Wilkinson, JohnH. Williams, JohnL. Williams, F. Williams,and PeterWood. Williams,Robert LillianSmith, KillersoftheDream (1949; New York,1961),22; Ernest B. Furguson, Hard Right:The Rise F. Williamsinterview byRobert Carl Cohen, 1968,transcript, ofjesse Helms (New York,1986), 30, 40; Robert Carl Cohen Papers(StateHistorical ofWisconsin, Dec. 1967, pp. 4-5, box 1,Robert Society Madison);Crusader, p. 3; Robert F. Williamsinterview byTimothy B. Tyson, March10, 1993,audiotape(in Timothy B. Tyson's posF. Williams, F. Williams," session).See also Robert "WhileGod LaySleeping:The Autobiography ofRobert 1-4, 1996,ibid. I am grateful to the Williamsfamily forsharing thismanuscript and otherfamily documents with me. Withrespect to the"emasculated blackmen,"thegender politics at work areglaring and important. On this heavily gendered and sexualizedlanguage,see Timothy B. Tyson, Radio FreeDixie: Robert F Williams and the RootsofBlackPower(Chapel Hill, forthcoming).
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Struggle oftheFreedom and theRoots Power" "Black
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cups in the Souththat as coffee ofsuchsceneswasas commonplace Knowledge Forthe restof his life,Robert D. Roosevelt. helped to electFranklin had recently radiAmerican African to becomeone of themostinfluential destined Williams, reporters, listeners, friends, readers, to story searing this cals ofhis time,repeated He preachedit fromstreetcornerladdersto eager crowdson and historians. in MalcolmX's in Harlemand to congregants Avenueand 125thStreet Seventh in and collegeaudihalls labor brutality to its witness TempleNumber7. He bore of his widelypubto the fervor toriums acrossthe United States.It contributed bidsfor Luther KingJr.in 1960and fueledhishesitant lisheddebatewithMartin tightened must have in merciless truths Its freedom struggle. leadership the black in his fingers on the nightin 1961whenhe fleda FederalBureauof Investigation gun slungoverone a machine withhis wifeand twosmallchildren, (FBI) dragnet he sharedwith that on platforms the memory shoulder. Williamsrevisited bitter Ho Chi Minh,and Mao Zedong. He told it overRadio FreeDixie, Fidel Castro, itfrom Hanoi on RadioHavanafrom 1962to 1965,and retold hisregular program in Vietnam.It echoed from soldiers American in broadcasts directed to African in Tiananmen in 1965and from Square speakers gigantic radiosin Watts transistor "While God opens the pages of his autobiography, in 1966. The childhoodstory his death on October 15, whichWilliamscompletedjust before Lay Sleeping," we can find thebitter distilled history ofthateleven-year-old, 1996.In theanguish of other racerebels,and thousands thatshapedone of the South'smostdynamic the African his life,and his lifemarked That momentmarked blackinsurgents. in the United States.2 movement freedom American and movement" that"the civilrights The lifeof Robert F. Williamsillustrates in very different terms, grewout of movement," often portrayed "theBlackPower thesamequestfor and reflected thesamepredicaments, thesamesoil,confronted thatwe associate all of the elements In fact, virtually freedom. American African in thesmalltowns and rural communities werealready present with"BlackPower" of Robert F. was born.The story movement" of the Southwhere"the civilrights pride,and blackpolitical action,blackcultural thatindependent Williamsreveals in theSouthin tension and in operated self-reliance" called"armed whatWilliams and nonviolent protest. tandemwithlegal efforts no place has thusfarhad virtually Williams contributions, Despitehisdramatic of scholars movement. Untilrecently, of the civilrights in the unfolding narrative Associaof on the pathbreaking legal march the National the movement focused moral tion forthe Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the powerful action direct ofnonviolent Dr. Kingand thearmies vision ofMartin KingJr. Luther Adam Fairclough, -David J. Garrow, the energies of able scholars have attracted of history, but These works Branchamongothers. opened newworlds and Taylor
2 See Timothy F. Williamsand the Rootsof Black Power" (Ph.D. diss., "Radio FreeDixie: Robert B. Tyson, Movement CivilRights F. Williamsand the Indigenous "Robert C. Barksdale, 1994); Marcellus Duke University, Negroes F. Williams, 69 (Spring1984),73-89; Robert ofNegroHistory, Journal Carolina,1961'" North in Monroe, (New York,1962); and Williams,"While God Lay Sleeping." withGuns, ed. MarcSchlieffer
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~ ~
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Carolina, Monroe, North only"laundromat, manin front ofa "white African American Unidentified F. Williamsgrewup, blackmaidswashedthe bodiesof aged 1961.In the SouthwhereRobert thattheyworecould not be laundered whitepeople, but the uniforms and infirm thatwhitepeople used. in the same machines HermanWzilliams. ofJohn Photo, JohnHermanWilliams,Courtesy
and the rangeof the rootsof blackstruggles to examine sufficiently their failures calls"a history moretheatriM. Payne whatCharles havecreated blackself-assertion cal thaninstructive."3 sensitive stackoflocal and statestudies growing a steadily In thelastfewyears, has begunto local and nationalmovements between relationship to the dynamic Local People stories. JohnDittmer's and morecomplex tell larger, morerealistic, thetelevision havetakenus farbeyond ofFreedom I've Got theLz~ght and Payne's citizens whomadetheblackfreeto theordinary celebrities cameras and civil rights black oftherural in theculture ofthatmovement and to theroots dom movement of and persuasive evidence extensive also present South.BothPayneand Dittmer local moveplayed in sustaining role that black self-defense the indispensable
of Brown v. Board of Education Kluger, SimpleJustice:The History includeRichard 3The bestsuchworks the Cross:Martin Luther Bearing Struggle and BlackAmerica's forEquality(New York,1976); David J. Garrow, To Redeem (New York,1986); Adam Fairclough, Conference Leadership Christian King,Jr.,and the Southern Ga., Luther and Martin King,Jr.(Athens, Conference Christian Leadership the Soul ofAmerica:The Southern Americain the King Years,1954-63 (New York,1988); and Taylor the Waters: Branch, Parting 1987); Taylor I've Got the 1963-65 (New York,1998). CharlesM. Payne, A PillarofFire:America in theKing Years, Branch, (Berkeley, 1995),418. FreedomStruggle and the Mississippi Tradition Lightof Freedom:The Organizing
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in his studyof the movement in Race and Democracy, ments.Adam Fairclough, assumphisownearlier 1915 to 1972,challenges from over thelongperiod Louisiana a unityand momentum of 1955 to 1965 displayed tion that"the blackactivism David S. Cecelski's and whatcame after." whatcame before thatsetit apartfrom AlongFreedom in HydeCounty, NorthCarolina, ofblackschools study profound African between out the"notablecontinuity older,moreconservative Road,points over priority blackschools ofstrong had given thebuilding which voices, American and comof blackseparatism 'militant' expressions and the newer desegregation, control."4 munity toucheson suchissues,thoughits of BlackPower The still-new historiography urbanand remains largely tendsto beginafter 1965and itsgeography chronology jourechoedthevacuousmainstream works early Ephemeral or western. northern as a "newblackmood" or a "radical BlackPower nalismof the period,portraying and liberals ofwhite to thebetrayals -a blackbacklash America" to white response in the literature, The first majorbreakthrough of whitereactionaries. the assaults "affirmed the legitiIn Struggle, thatBlackPower Carson's recognized Clayborne in the ruraldeep South" of armedself-defense tradition macyof a long-standing in Dixie. Carsonrecofblackradicalism" "dormant traditions and thatit reflected of the freedom "a logical outgrowth" ognizes that Black Powerrepresented efforts "to instillin the mindsof blackpeople the notionthatthey movement's Black In theseframeworks, however, worldforthemselves." could createa better -whetherpointrights dream from thecivil departure a tragic still represents Power or inevitable.5 unfortunate, less,necessary, L. Van New Day in Babylonhas pointedbeyond William Deburg'slandmark cultural and psychoBlackPower's toward important despairand disillusionment as a fundamental stagein the BlackPower Van Deburgreveals logicalaffirmation. for Moredecisive mypurconsciousness. American ofAfrican political development
I've Got the (Urbana,1994); Payne, in Mississippi forCivilRights LocalPeople: TheStruggle 4JohnDittmer, see Dittmer, Local People, among blackMississippians, to armedself-defense Lightof Freedom.Forreferences 1, 47, 49, 86, 106, 166-67, 188-93, 215, 238, 254-86, 306-7, 310, 354, 358, 391-98. See also Payne,I've Got 44, 48-51, 54, 59, 61-62, 114,138-39, 159, 168, 176, 202-6, 209, 279-80, 287, 308, 314. theLightofFreedom, see David R. struggle, in the freedom of armedself-defense the importance thatreveals Fora good local study Florida,1877-1980 (New York,1985), 35-36, Crisis:St. Augustine, Colburn,Racial Changeand Community in Louisizna,1915-1972 Struggle The CivilRights Race and Democracy: 54-55, 109, 208-9. Adam Fairclough, and the Fateof NorthCarolina Road: Hyde County, Along Freedom Ga., 1995), 1; David S. Cecelski, (Athens, Greensand CivilRights: BlackSchoolsin theSouth(Chapel Hill, 1994),10. See alsoWilliamH. Chafe,Civilities ForFreedom(New York,1979), 173, 237-39. and the Black Struggle boro,NorthCarolina, 5 Howard BlackPower:The 1973), 208; ThomasWagstaff, America:1945-1971 (Indianapolis, Zinn,Postwar America: in Capitalist L. Allen,BlackAwakening America Hills,1969);Robert to White (Beverly RadicalResponse BlackPower:ThePolitics V. Hamilton, and Charles Carmichael 1969); Stokely (GardenCity, An Analytic History (New York, ofBlackNationalism in America (New York,1967); TheodoreDraper,TheRediscovery ofLiberation up a that"cover[ed] retreat" it as "a strategic presenting the rootsof BlackPower, 1969). Harold Cruseignored See Harold in the original strategy." forit or the flaws the basicreasons without havingto explaineither defeat analysis (New York,1967), 544-65, esp. 544, 548. A morerecent Cruse, The Crisisof the Negro Intellectual Northernand the(largely) movement civilrights in thegoalsofthe Southern acknowledges that"thedifferences and suggests . .. havebeen overemphasized" movements blackprideand blackconsciousness and Western-based a newsenseofselfand of blackculKingJr.and MalcolmX shared"thegoal ofconstructing thatMartin Luther In StrugCarson, Ga., 1996),5. Clayborne (Athens, See Richard and theIdea ofFreedom King,CivilRights ture." Mass., 1981),215, 299. of the 1960s(Cambridge, gle: SNCC and the BlackAwakening
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thatBlackPower's poses hereis Van Deburg'simportant "essential understanding spirit wastheproduct ofgenerations ofblackpeople dealingwithpowerlessness and surviving."6 The lifeofRobert thatbothBlackPower and thecivilrights F. Williams suggests in whatPatricia roots ofraceand movement havetheir Sullivan's important history in theNew Deal-era Southcallsthe"traditions offreedom and citizendemocracy ship" that, "born in the crucibleof Reconstruction, of sustainedcommunities resistance." WorldWar II afforded the blacksoutherners who carried thosetraditionsforward unprecedented political who seizedthemcame opportunities; many from families withlongtraditions ofresistance to whitesupremacy. And thosetraditionsare onlyremotely relatedto nonviolence as it is conventionally depicted. In fact, it might be arguedthatnonviolent interracialism, rather thanBlackPower, is theanomaly. A careful sifting ofhistorical evidence from across theSouthreveals thewidely held distinction between thecivilrights movement and BlackPower as an intellectual architecture of politicalconvenience.7 largely The very dramawithwhich thelifeofRobert F. Williams illustrates thesepoints has causedmanyscholars him as minorand idiosyncratic to dismiss or simply to ignorehim altogether. "The Williamscase is remembered by casual students of socialchange,if it is remembered at all,"thejournalist FredPowledge "as writes, a transitory a mereglitchin the chronology phenomenon, of those years-the to the rule."Hugh Pearson, in his studyof Huey Newton,incorrectly exception credits Williamswithfounding the Deacons ForDefenseand Justice and inaccurately argues thatWilliams thefirst realseedsofmilitancy in thesouthern "planted civil Pearson rights movement," though notes thedecisive influence rightly Williams had on the Black Panthers. He also putsforth the fallacy thatblacksoutherners "first had to tastemoreatrocity at the hands of whiteracists" before theywould summonthe courageto defendtheirfamilies. This notionthatWilliamstook his stand"prematurely," as MalcolmX claimed,"just a couple of years ahead of his time," obscures the extent to whichself-defense was rootedin southern black
culture.8
StudentNonviolent Committee knewbetter Coordinating (SNCC) organizers
6 WilliamL. Van Deburg,New Day in Babylon:The BlackPowerMovement and American Culture, 19651975 (Chicago,1992), 34. Emphasisadded. 7 Patricia Sullivan, Days ofHope: Raceand Democracy in theNewDeal Era(Chapel Hill, 1996),14. On family traditions of resistance, see Payne,I've Got the Lightof Freedom, 207-35, esp. 233. 8 Robert F. Williamsis not mentioned in Branch's Parting the lYaters and Garrow's Bearingthe Cross,nor in RobertWeisbrot, FreedomBound: A History of America's CivilRights Movement (New York,1990). There areseveral sentences on Williams in Harvard TheStruggle Sitkoff, forBlackEquality, 1954-1980 (NewYork, 1981), 66. Forotherportrayals of Williamsas a harbinger of clashesto come,see David Levering Lewis,"The Origins and CausesoftheCivilRights in TheCivilRights Movement," in America, Movement ed. Charles Eagles(Jackson, 1986), 16; Herbert Shapiro, WhiteViolence and BlackResponse: FromReconstruction to Montgomery (Amherst, 1988),455-62; and Cruse,Crisis oftheNegroIntellectual, 351-401.FredPowledge, Freeat last? The CivilRights Movement and thePeople WhoMade It (New York, 1992),311;Hugh Pearson, TheShadowofthePanther: Huey Newtonand the CostofBlackPowerin America (Reading,1994),25-28, 35-39. The Deacons ForDefenseand Justice werefoundedin Louisianaseveral years after Williamsleftthe country. ForMalcolmX's statement, see the 1964radiointerview, in MalcolmX As They "His BestCredentials: On the Airwith JoeRainey," KnewHim, ed. David Gallen (New York,1992), 164-65.
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In 1955a blackwomen's thanto pushnonviolence on reluctant blacksoutherners. newsletter published inJackson, Mississippi, announced thatsince"no lawenforcein the mentbodyin ignorant Miss.willprotect anyNegrowho has membership himself." The editors warned "thewhitehoodNAACP," "theNegromustprotect lumswhoarenowparading aroundthepremises" thattheeditors were"protected "In terms of theorganizing SNCC's CharlesCobb observed, ... byarmedguard." youdidn'tgo to theplantations, youdidn'tgo to thesetowns and somehow enter intoa discussion ofviolence and nonviolence." When whiteterrorists attacked the in Holmes home of HartmanTurnbow, a local black farmer and SNCC stalwart "pushedhisfamily out thebackdoor County, Mississippi, Cobb recalled, Turnbow offthe wall and started was and grabbedthe rifle shooting. And his explanation simply that,'I wasnotbeing,' as he said,'non-nonviolent, I wasprotecting mywife and family."' EvenBob Moses, whowasas deeply identified with philosophical nonin the freedom violenceas anyone movement, acknowledged how muchhis convictions violatedthe moresamong thoseSNCC soughtto organize."Self-defense is so deeplyengrained in rural in southern America," Mosestold SNCC volunteers 1964, "thatwe as a smallgroupcan'teffect it."9 The tradition, in theunforgettable rooted experiences ofslaveresistance and Reconstruction militancy, had survived whatRayford Whittingham Logancalled"the in Memphis, forexnadir"ofAfrican American life.After an 1892triple lynching ample, the black editorIda B. Wells "determined to sell my life as dearlyas shewrote; she urgedother possible," blacksoutherners to do thesame."Whenthe whiteman . . . knowshe runsas greata riskof bitingthe dust every timehis Afro-American "he would have a greater victim does,"Wellsinsisted, respect for Afro-American life."When whitemobs ragedthrough the streets of Atlantain "I bought home to defend his wifeand family. 1906,W. E. B. Du Bois hastened a Winchester with double-barreled shotgun and twodozen roundsofshellsfilled "Ifa white I lived he wrote later. on thecampuswhere buckshot," mob had stepped I would without hesitation have sprayed theirgutsoverthe grass." Even Robert T. Washington's ofTuskegee Booker Moton,president Institute, prepared to defend when Tuskegee was menacedby the Ku Klux Klan in the legacywithshotguns In 1920s.10 the early1930s,rural blacksin Alabamaarmedthemselves to organize the ShareCroppers' Union. Theirownexperience had taught them,one recalled, that"theonlything goingto stopthemfrom killing you,yougotto go shooting." Thirty years later, whenSNCC organizers cameto Lowndes County, Alabama,black farmers showedup formeetings told Stokely Cararmed;one blacksharecropper
9 EagleEye:The Woman's Voice, Aug. 20, 1955,p. 1; Fundhi:TheStory ofElla Baker, dir. Joanne Grant (SongtalkPublishing Co., 1980).Forthestatement byBob Moses,see Mary King,Freedom Song(NewYork, 1987),318. 10 Rayford Whittingham Logan,The Betrayal of the Negro, fromRutherford B. Hayesto Woodrow Wilson (New York, 1997), originally published in 1954 as The Negro in AmericanLife and Thought:The Nadir, 1877-1901.ForIda B. Wells'sstatement, see Paula Giddings,Whenand WhereI Enter:The Impactof Black Women on Race and Sex in America (New York,1984),20. On W. E. B. Du Bois'spreparations forself-defense, see Leon Litwack, Trouble in Mind. BlackSoutherners in theAge ofjim Crow(New York,1998),317. On Robert Moton'spreparation forself-defense, see Walter White,A Man Called White(New York,1948), 70.
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michael:"You turnthe othercheek,and you'llget handed halfwhatyou'resittingon."" Thissensibility wasnotforeign to Martin Luther KingJr.norto other members ofhis generation of blacksoutherners. Glenn Smiley, whovisited King'shomeon in 1956,wroteback that"the place is behalfof the Fellowship of Reconciliation an arsenal"and thatKing had armedguards.Probably themostcrucial local ally of SNCC's campaignsin Mississippi, Amzie Moore, "like most politically active Blacksin Mississippi," CharlesPaynewrites, "often carried a gun. His home was wellarmed, and at night theareaaroundhishousemayhavebeen thebest-lit spot in Cleveland." NAACP field secretary was"anything Medgar Evers but non-violent," the NAACP official recalled.In 1953,Evers RubyHurley namedhis first childafter the Kenyanguerrilla leaderJomoKenyatta, Payneobserves, and Evers"thought longand hardabouttheidea ofNegroes engaging in guerilla warfare in theDelta." in 1959 thatshe and her to ThurgoodMarshall Daisy Bates in LittleRockwrote husband"keep'Old Betsy' well-oiled and theguards arealways on thealert." Even in herpublicspeeches, Batesbragged ofthe .32-caliber automatic she carried. She hailed the mother of ElizabethEckford, the blackgirlwho had facedthe mobs at Central High alone,forhaving"the courageof Harriet Tubman"becauseMrs. Eckford keptherBible and herpistolside byside. Despite the singular dramaof his political career, Robert Williams's devotion to "armedself-reliance" remained moreordinary thanidiosyncratic. Amongthefewhistorians whohaveexplored his story, onlyJohnDittmersummonsthe clarity to note thatWilliams'smilitary hisNAACP affiliation, service, and hiswillingness to defend home,family, and comifnecessary munity byforce madehim"typical ofthegeneration ofsouthern blacks who launchedthe civilrights in the 1950s." 12 movement Robert Williamswas bornin 1925 to Emma C. and JohnL. Williams.His father wasa railroad in Monroe, Union County, NorthCarolina, a townof boilerwasher sixthousand in theNorthCarolinaPiedmont. stilltended Womenbornin slavery where vegetable gardens alongthestreet Rob Williams young grew up. His grandSikes had attended BiddleInstitute father, Williams, borna slavein UnionCounty, in nearby Charlotte after emancipation and becameone of Union County's first black schoolteachers. He enlistedas a Republicanactivist duringthe late nineteenthcentury and "traveled all overthe county and the Statemakingspeeches
II RobinD. G. Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Communists in Alabamaduring the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, 1990),45, 229. See also Carson,In Struggle, 162-64. The rootsof a distinctive Afro-Christianity wereas deep as thebondageunderwhichthatfaith in theblackSouthwerenotdeep. wasforged, but theroots ofnonviolence In a history of American nonviolence, not 1 of the 27 entries priorto the emergence of Martin Luther KingJr. reflects either African American or southern in America: A Documenorigins. See Staughton Lynd, Nonviolence tary History (New York,1966). 12 Stewart Burns, ed., Daybreakof Freedom:The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Chapel Hill, 1997), 22; Payne, I've Got the Lightof Freedom, 44; Dittmer, Local People,49-50; Payne, I've Got theLightof Freedom, 49-51; DaisyBatesto Thurgood Marshall, Aug. 3, 1959,box2, DaisyBatesPapers (StateHistorical Society ofWisconsin); Daisy Bates, speech, 1959, box 3, ibid.; JohnDittmer, "Robert Williams," in The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, ed. CharlesReaganWilsonand WilliamFerris (Chapel Hill, 1989), 231. Emphasisadded.
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forthe Party." SikesWilliamsalso publisheda smallnewsand soliciting support 13 The "fusion" and coalition of blackRepublicans papercalledthePeople's Voice. office in 1896. whitePopulists statewide thathe had laboredto build won every "THE CHAINS OF SERVITUDE ARE BROKEN,"Williamsand hiswhitePopulist to theirblackconstituents thatyear."NOW NEVER allies in Monroeproclaimed white conservalater, however, LICK THE HAND THAT LASHED YOU." Twoyears thesoon-to-be tives thedemocratic "Go to thepollstomorrow," overthrew process. of Wilmington, NorthCarolina, mayor, Alfred Waddell,told the whitecitizens "and ifyoufindthenegroout voting, tellhimto leavethepolls,and ifhe refuses, killhim."In a campaign offraud all across thestatein 1898,Red Shirt and violence editor of whitesupremacy install whatthe Democratic terrorists helped the party of the good government by the party Josephus Daniels celebrated as "permanent 14 whiteman." strugwhohad livedthrough these Robert's grandmother, EllenIsabelWilliams, in hislifeas he grew remembered to manhood;Williams gles,wasa dailypresence He recalledthat"she read everything" his grandmother as "mygreatest friend." in partbecauseRobert so strikingly Perhaps and thatshe "specialized in history." press resembled herhandsome late husband,shewouldpointto theironprinting in theshedand telltheyoung ofthecrusading political boystories editor's rusting hergrandson thatshe had been Herself she reminded exploits. bornintoslavery, in the union of her mother conceived Daniel Tomblin.Before withtheirowner, she died,EllenWilliams Robert a gift thatsymbolized muchthatslavgaveyoung and thestruggle for her:theancient rifle thathisgrandfather ery liberty had taught 15 at the turnof the century. had wieldedagainstwhiteterrorists a new gun in hand,foundhimself facing It wouldnotbe longbefore Williams, In 1946 twenty-one-year-old RobertWilliams generationof white terrorists.
13 Barksdale, "Robert F. Williamsand the IndigenousCivil RightsMovement in Monroe,NorthCarolina," 75; H. NelsonWalden,History ofMonroeand Union County (Monroe,1963), 15; S. E. Williams,"Application BlankNo. 15" (inJohnHermanWilliams's is in my of thedocument Detroit, Mich.).A photograph possession, I am grateful possession. to Mr.Williams for sharing thisand other family photographs and documents. Crusader, July18, 1959,p. 2; "History of Our Family Reunion," [1975],WilliamsFamily Collection (in Mabel Williams's possession, Baldwin,Mich.); Williamsinterview by Cohen, transcript, p. 53. Thereare no knowncopiesof the but itsexistence and politics are confirmed byWilliamsfamily sources and references to it in the People's Voice, local whitenewspaper. See "MonroeHistorical Edition," MonroeEnquirer-Journal, Sept. 1974,p. 4-B. 14 "To the ColoredVoters of Union County," 1896,flier, BlackHistory File (HeritageRoom,Union County and thePolitics Courthouse, Monroe, N.C.); GlendaElizabethGilmore, Gender of White andjim Crow:Women Supremacy in NorthCarolina,1896-1920(Chapel Hill, 1996), 110-11.Forthe statement ofJosephus Daniels, seeJ. Morgan Kousser, TheShapingofSouthern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and theEstablishment ofthe Onesee Helen G. Party South(New Haven, 1974),76. On thewhite supremacy campaigns of 1898in North Carolina, Gender Edmonds,The Negroand FusionPolitics in NorthCarolina,1894-1901(Chapel Hill, 1951);Gilmore, EricAnderson, Race and Politics in NorthCarolina,1872-1901: TheBlackSecond(Baton Rouge, andjim Crow, 1981);H. LeonPrather, "WeHave Taken a City":The Wilmington RacialMassacre and Coup of1898(Rutherford, 1984); and David S. Cecelskiand Timothy B. Tyson, eds., Democracy The Wilmington Race Riot of Betrayed: 1898 and Its Legacy (Chapel Hill, 1998). 15 Robert Williams,"SomedayI'm Going Back South,"Daily Worker (Detroitedition),April9, 1949,p. 7; F. Williams B. Tyson, July 18,1959,p. 2; "History ofOur Family Reunion"; Robert interview byTimothy Crusader, The crucial Sept. 2, 1996,audiotape(in Tyson's possession). roleof Ellen Williamsin the ongoingpoliticallife of herfamily underscores the connection thatGlenda ElizabethGilmorehas drawnbetween African American women'sactivism duringthe late nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries and the emerging African American freedom movement of the 1950sand 1960s.See Gilmore, GenderandJim Crow,224.
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in Monroewearing the uniform steppeddownfroma segregated Greyhound of hiscountry. Williams had movedto Detroit four years earlier to work at FordMotor Belle Isle Amusement Parkon theevening ofJune Company. Cominghomefrom 11, 1943,he and his brother in battledwhitemobs in one of the worst raceriots in 1944 and enduredthe ironiesof United Stateshistory. Williamswas drafted marching forfreedomin a segregated army. When his government-issue shoe leatherstruck the same pavement whereten years earlier he had seen Big Jesse Helmsdragtheblackwoman off tojail,Williams wasno longer a frightened elevenyear-old. Military training had givenblackveterans "somefeeling of security and in us whata virtue he recalled. "The Army self-assurance," indoctrination instilled it wasto fight for for democracy and thatwe werefighting democracy and upholding the Constitution. But mostof all they taught us to use arms." Likethousands ofotherblackveterans whomJohn as "theshocktroops Dittmer has characterized ofthemodern civilrights did notcomehometo pick movement," Robert Williams 16 cotton. Another returning blackveteran, a friend of Williams's named BennieMontdid come home to raisecottonon the farm thathis father gomery, operatedas a sharecropper forW. W. Mangum,a whitelandowner near Monroe.Saturday, June 1, 1946, was a regular workday on the Mangumplace, but Montgomery askedMangumfor hiswagesat noon,explaining thathe neededto go to Monroe to have his father's car repaired.Mangum apparently kickedand slapped the young veteran, and Montgomery pulled out a pocketknife and cut his employer's The Ku Klux Klan wantedto lynchthe black sharecropper, throat. but instead stateauthorities him of whiskedMontgomery out of town,triedand convicted and tenmonths him in the gas chamber Prison murder, laterexecuted at Central 17 in Raleigh. Stateauthorities remains back to Monroe.Robbed shippedthe sharecropper's of their of the of "theinvisible lynching, however, members local klavern empire" let it be known thatBennieMontgomery's bodybelonged,not to his family, but to theKu Klux Klan. "Theywasgonnacomeand takeBennie's bodyout and drag it up and downthe streets," reAfrican American J. W. McDow,another veteran, called. "I rather I see thathappen."A groupof former die and go to hell before soldiers metat Booker T. Perry's barbershop and deviseda battleplan. When the Klan motorcade pulled up in front of the Harris FuneralHome, forty blackmen leveled their aimat thelineofcars.Not a shotwasfired; theKlansmen rifles, taking Pfc. United StatesArmy simply weighedtheirchancesand droveaway.Former RobertF. Williamscradleda carbinethatnight.So did threemen who would becomekeylieutenants in the "blackmilitia"thatWilliamsorganized ten years
16 Williamsinterview see Robert by Cohen, transcript, p. 44. On events at Belle Isle thatevening, Shogun and TomCraig,TheDetroitRace Riot:A Studyin Violence (New York,1976),34-35. See also DominicCapeci and Martha Wilkerson, Layered Violence: TheDetroit Rioters of1943(Jackson, 1991).UnionCounty, North Carolina,Record ofMilitary Discharges, vol.7, p. 99 (Monroe PublicLibrary, Monroe, N.C.); Dittmer, LocalPeople,1-9. 17 Monroe June31, 1946,p. 1; ibid., March31, 1947,p. 1. See also Marcellus C. Barksdale, "The Enquirer, Indigenous Civil Rights Movement and CulturalChange in NorthCarolina,1945-1965:Weldon,Chapel Hill, and Monroe"(Ph.D. diss.,Duke University, 1977),42-43.
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started "thatreally incidents," Williamsrecalled, later."Thatwas one of the first could be effective thatwe had to resist, and thatresistance us to understanding 18 in groups, and if we resisted withguns." if we resisted at Cadillac briefly Williamssoon leftthe South foralmosta decade,working in Detroitbefore to write and poetry MotorCompany usinghis G.I. Bill benefits at threedifferent black colleges:WestVirginiaState College, studypsychology "SomeCentral Collegefor Negroes. C. Smith College,and North Carolina Johnson in "I he of the edition Daily vowed a article for the Detroit day," 1949 Worker, would in thefight forthe thefight in thenorth and moreefficient return seasonedfrom newsan essay for Paul Robeson's ofmypeople."In 1952,Williams wrote liberation thatAfrican American collegestudents paper,Freedom,in whichhe predicted in America fordemocracy today. wouldsoon become"themostmilitant agitators C. Smith,Williamsmet to lose and all to gain."AtJohnson Theyhave nothing a promising Williams one ofhisliterary heroes, Langston Hughes,whoconsidered In 1953,however, Wilpoemsas an encouragement. poetand senthimhandwritten in this liams ran out of moneyforcollegeand reenlisted the armedforces, time 19 in the UnitedStatesMarineCorps. he has gone,"an FBI observer noted duringthisperiod,"Williams "Wherever and at previous places of employboth in the Army has constantly complained, The Marine Corpswasno different. against." ment,thathe has been discriminated with hisofficers, to racialdiscrimination, Williams clashed spent Objecting bitterly in the MarineCorpsin the brig,and received an unmuchofhis sixteen months in 1955. "Subjectin a letter of the United to the President desirabledischarge in his to renounce and live a 'which Statesexpressed desire his citizenship country His one UnitedStates wouldnotlethisfamily NavalIntelligence reported. starve,"' moment as a Marine cameon May17, 1954,whenhe heardthattheUnited bright "AtlastI felt thatI was Courthad struck StatesSupreme downschoolsegregation. he wrote. "I wassurethatthiswasthe bea partofAmerica and thatI belonged," of a new era of American democracy."20 ginning of to Monroein 1955,Williamsjoined both the local branch Upon his return In a Sundaysermon delivered white theNAACP and a mostly Unitarian fellowship.
18 J. W. McDowinterview WilsoninterWoodrow possession); byTyson, Sept. 17, 1993,audiotape(in Tyson's Collection (Perkins Liaudiotape,box 9, Duke Oral History Chandler Barksdale, viewbyMarcellus [1976-19771, by Barksdale, audiotape,ibid.; Duke University, interview Durham,N.C.); B. J. Winfield brary, [1976-19771, F. Williamsinterview Robert Collection 1970,transcript, (MoorlandMosby, RalphBuncheOral History byJames Research HowardUniversity, Washington, D.C.). Center, Spingarn 19Williams, I'm GoingBack South," F. April9, 1949,p. 7; Robert Daily Worker (Detroitedition), "Someday 11(June1952),5; UnitedStates a Militant Generation:" Freedom, "N. Carolina CollegeYouthCallsfor Williams, on theJudiciary, F Williams: the Committee to InvesHearings before Testimony ofRobert Senate,Committee on the Internal Security Lawsofthe Committee Security Actand Other oftheInternal tigatetheAdministration by Cohen, no. 43, pp. 211-12;Williamsinterview Judiciary, 91 Cong. 2 sess.,part 1, March25, 1970,exhibit transcript, p. 207. 20 U.S. Naval Intelligence, Report, "21Jan-28Apr 1955Intermittently," Investigation San Diego, California, I am grateful to possession). F. Williams"FederalBureauof Investigation (FBI) SubjectFile (in Tyson's "Robert for ofitareavailablein theRobert F. Williams Papers(Bentley file; parts theWilliams family sharing thecomplete Patriot, 18(Jan. 1960),3. The statement AnnArbor). See also Southern University ofMichigan, Historical Library, Carsonet al. in TheEyeson thePrizeReader, ed. Clayborne Harding, byWilliamsis in Vincent "Introduction," (New York,1991),36.
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in 1956,Williamshailed the Montgomery, to his fellow Unitarians Alabama,bus and celebrated whathe called"thepatriots ofpassive His bitter revolution." boycott collision withtheMarine to equal rights Corpshad notdampenedhiscommitment in theAmerican for all undertheUnitedStates Constitution and to thoseelements politicaltradition that he believedundergirded black liberation. Invoking "the ofConcord, and Valley Williamsdeclared from the pulpit spirit Lexington Forge," that,as he put it, "theliberty bell peals oncemoreand the Stars and Stripes shall waveforever."21 The atmosphere at the MonroeNAACPwas less exuberant. In the wakeof the Brownv. Board ofEducationdecisionand the triumph at Montgomery, Ku Klux Klan ralliesnearMonroebeganto drawcrowds as big as fifteen thousand.Dynain the area werecommonand lesseractsof terror mite attacks on blackactivists "The echoofshots routine. and dynamite blasts," theeditors ofthefreedom movementjournalthe Southern Patriot wrotein 1957, "has been almostcontinuous the South."The MonroeNAACP dwindledto sixmembers, throughout who then When the newest the contemplated disbanding. member objectedto dissolution, chosehimto lead thechapter. me president," departing membership "Theyelected Robert "and thentheyall left."22 Williamsrecalled, himself a one-man Finding virtually NAACP chapter, Williams turned first to the theKlan thatnightbackin 1946. blackveterans withwhomhe had stoodagainst Dr. Albert Another thephysician E. PerryJr., veteran, becamevice-president. Finding it "necessary to visithomesand appeal directly to individuals," Williamsinformed thenational he painstakingly office, recruited from thebeauty parlors, pool and street a of halls, corners, building cadre sometwohundred members by 1959. The largest wereAfrican American groupof new recruits womenwho worked as The Monroebranch domestics. of the NAACP became"theonlyone of itskindin existence," the novelist JulianMayfield, a keysupporter of Williamsin Harlem's in blackLeft, in 1961."Its members wrote Commentary and supporters, who are workers a well-armed mostly and displacedfarmers, constitute and disciplined The branch unit." became"uniquein thewholeNAACP becauseofa workfighting and a leadership thatwas not middleclass," Williamslater ing classcomposition wrote."Most important, we had a strong of black veterans who representation didn'tscareeasily."23
21 Robert F. Williams,"ColonelJimCrow'sLastStand: A SermonDeliveredat All Soul's Chapel Unitarian Fellowship, Monroe,NorthCarolina," March25, 1956,pp. 1-2, box 3, WilliamsPapers. 22 Forattendance at a Union,SouthCarolina,rally, see Charleston Newsand Courier, Sept. 21, 1956,p. 1-B. Fora report thatin 1957 "cross-burnings and [Ku Klux Klan] meetings hereattracted thousands," see Monroe Enquirer, March17, 1958,p. 1. Southern Patriot, 15 (Jan. 1957), 1; Williamsinterview byMosby. 23 Robert E Williamsto the NAACP, March11, 1957,box A333, NationalAssociation forthe Advancement ofColoredPeoplePapers(Manuscript Division,Library ofCongress, Washington, D.C.); Williams, Negroeswith interview Winfield Wilsoninterview; Williams Guns,ed. Schlieffer, 50-51;McDowinterview; interview; byTyson, from March10, 1993;Williamsinterview indicate thatthe branch byMosby. Membership reports grew 92 to 121 in 1959,butWilliams members claimed-and therecords ofthenational office confirm-that theMonroe branch "for thepurposeofprotecting declinedto record many memberships thosewhojoin theNAACPwhodo notwant in NorthCarolina, theirnamesknown." Received FromBranches 1-October1, See "TotalMembership January 1959,"box C113,NAACPPapers. JulianMayfield, "Challengeto NegroLeadership: The Case .of Robert Williams," Commentary (April 1961),298; Williams,NegroeswithGuns, 51.
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In response American children whom local African to the drownings of several segregation had forcedto swim in isolated farmponds, the Monroe NAACP swimming pool in the local tax-supported launcheda campaignto desegregate a from liberal observed 1957. Harry Golden, prominent Charlotte, Jewish nearby ofinterracial mention oftheracequestion" "haunts every thatthespecter sexuality it "naive"of Williamsto "experiment withthe crudeemotions of a and thought the Ku Klux Klan Not surprisingly, small Southernagricultural community." Dr. Perry for theresurgent and a large, heavily blackactivism blamedtheaffluent Black house one nightthatsummer. armedKlan motorcade attacked Dr. Perry's and a hail of disciveterans withsandbagfortifications greetedthe nightriders passedan ordinance immediately The Monroe BoardofAldermen plinedgunfire. Ku Klux Klan motorcades, a measure had refused to consider before they banning the gun battle.24 When Williamsand the otherblackveterans self-defense networks, organized thatthemen teachthemto shoot.But for blackmen as well blackwomeninsisted of protecting of withthe politics as whitemen, the rhetoric womenwas fraught and they thatthewomen"had volunteered, controlling women.Williamsrecalled AmeriAfrican Butwe keptthemout ofmostofit."Nevertheless, wantedto fight. of intellican womenwho laboredas domestics playedcrucialrolesas gatherers newsletter, Wiland delivered theweekly thetelephones gence.Theyalso worked liamsacknowledged. But it was not easyto confine womento theseroles.When abortion on a white charges of "criminal on trumped-up police arrested Dr. Perry dozens of black citizens, mostof themwomen,armedthemselves and woman," crowded thatthe women"surged into the police station. Jetmagazinereported In was produced." theirguns and knives untilPerry againstthe doors,fingering of and defiedgender stereotypes-demanding short, blackwomenbothdeployed us?"-even thoughtheyoverblack men, in effect, "Whyaren'tyou protecting in theirdailylives.25 turnedsuchstereotypes An evenmorevividlocal dramadragged Monroe ontothestageofinternational American David E. "Fuzzy"Simpon October28, 1958.TwoAfrican boys, politics somewhitechildren met son and JamesHanover Thompson, ages eightand ten, in a vacantlot. A kissing Thompsonand game ensuedin whichthe ten-year-old in hisan eight-year-old Suttonkissedone another. Rarely whitegirlnamed Sissy so largeintothelifeofa place and so smallopened a window has an incident tory from the"kissing case"underthatstemmed a people. The worldwide controversy in racialpolitics and demonstrated both the lined the powerof sexualquestions
24
ofMonroe(Monroe,1957),473-75, NorthCarolinaCollection Code ofthe City ordinance, cades,and Caravans" of NorthCarolina,Chapel Hill). University (Louis RoundWilsonLibrary, lit25 Williams "Is NorthCarolinaNAACPLeadera Marked interview Man?,"10-11.An expanding byMosby; in an ongoing in NorthCarolinahelpsplace theseself-assertions activism women's American erature on African and ConGendered Gender Strnfe andJimCrow;LauraEdwards, See Gilmore, tradition. political blackwomen's Ways':Womenand Greene,"'Our Separate (Urbana,1997); and Christina ofReconstruction fusion:ThePolitics 1997). in Durham,NorthCarolina,1940sto 1970s"(Ph.D. diss.,Duke University, Movement theBlackFreedom
CavalJet,Oct. 31, 1957,pp. 10-11;"Parades, Man?," 12,1957,p. 1; "Is NorthCarolinaNAACPLeadera Marked
and Guide,Oct. Journal [Virginia] Jan. 1955,p. 9; ibid.,Jan.-Feb.1959,p. 2; Norfolk Israelite, Carolina
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promise and theproblems ofCold Warpolitics fortheAfrican American freedom 26 struggle. Afterthe kissingincident,SissySutton'smotherreported, "I was furious.I ifI had thechance." wouldhavekilledHanover myself Sissy's father tooka shotgun and wentlookingforthe two boys.Neighbors reported that a whitemob had not onlyto kill the boysbut roaredup to the Thompsonhome and threatened to lynch mothers. Later that Hanover Thomptheir afternoon, policeofficers spotted son and FuzzySimpson drink "Both pullinga redwagonloaded withsoft bottles. us cops jumped out withtheirgunsdrawn," Thompsonrecalled."Theysnatched us and threw us in thecar.When we gotto thejail, they drug up and handcuffed us out of the carand started beatingus." The local juvenilecourtjudge reported to Gov. Luther H. Hodges thatthe police had detainedthe boys"fortheirown in the case."27 good, due to local feeling Authorities held the two boysforsix days withoutpermitting them to see or attorneys. parents,friends, Passinggunmenfireddozens of shotsinto the torchedcrosses on the lawn. Hanover'ssister Thompsonhome. Klan terrorists the case seemedto foundhis dog shotdead in the yard.Formanywhitecitizens, resonate withthe sexualfears awakened bythe prospect of schooldesegregation. "If [blackchildren] get into our ruralschoolsand ridethe buseswithour white "the Monroe'kissing' one local of children," womanwrote, incident is onlya start whatwe will have."On November whathe 4, Judge J. HamptonPriceconvened for Determed thewhite and theblackboys. "separate butequal" hearings parents nied theright to engagecounselor to confront their accusers, Hanover Thompson and FuzzySimpson to Morrison Ifthey were sentenced Schoolfor Training Negroes. behavedwell,JudgePricetold the boys, were they theymightbe releasedbefore
twenty-one.28
of the Robert Williamssaw the "kissing case" as morethana local expression irrational sexuallynchpin of whitesupremacy; the bizarre clarity of the case and the strange of the Cold Warsuggested As Martin Luther politics a larger strategy. Christian Conference KingJr.and the Southern Leadership (SCLC)would do in in Monroeset out to use fouryears Birmingham later,Williamsand his friends
26 Kelly to RoyWilkins, "A Report ofActivities oftheNorth Alexander CarolinaStateConference ofBranches in Reference to theCase ofDavid Simpson NorthCarolina," Dec. 26, 1958, andJamesH. Thompson ofMonroe, box 333A, NAACP Papers.See Patrick Jones,"'Communist Front ShoutsKissingCase to the World':The Committee to CombatRacialInjustice and the Politics ofRace and Genderduring theCold War"(M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996). 27 George "The Kissing B. Current to Wilkins, Weissman, Case,"Nation, Jan. 17, 1959,p. 47; Gloster Dec. 23, 1958,boxA92, NAACP Papers. See also Charlotte Jan. 12,1959,p. 2-A;DurhamCarolina Times, Jan.10, Observer, 1959,p. 1; Monroe Nov.20, 1958,p. 1. See alsoJames Hanover Thompson interview byTyson, May 13, Enquirer, 1993,audiotape(in Tyson's possession); andJ.HamptonPriceto Luther H. Hodges,Nov.26, 1958,box423, GovernorLuther H. Hodges Papers(NorthCarolinaDivisionof Archives and History, Raleigh). 28 Thompson interview. See also ChicagoDefender, Jan. 17, 1959,p. 3. Mrs.W. W. Rogers to editor, Charlotte Feb. 2, 1959,p. 2-B; Winston-Salem JournalandSentinel, Feb. 8, 1958,p. 1; Writof Habeas Corpus Observer, and Petition, Superior Court,Mecklenburg County, N.C.,Jan.6, 1959,LauraMola Papers(in Tyson's possession). of Statements Made By Attorney on the 'Frank See also "Transcript ConradLynnDuringInterview FordShow,' Radio Station WPEN, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania onJune20, 1959,from12:40until1:35 AM,"box A92, NAACP Papers,
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3M~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~K
Robert F. Williams teaches hiswife MabelWilliams to use a pistol given to himbyFidelCastro. Four months sheheldoff Monroe police officers with a .12-gauge earlier, when tried to arrest herhusband. shotgun they Herman Courtesy Williams. ofJohn
the international of the Cold Waras a fulcrum politics to movetheUnitedStates to intervene. government Determined to makethe"kissing case"a globalmetaphor forthe American off racialdilemma,theyfired pressreleases, pestered reporters, houndedthewire whatTimemagazine called"a rolling services, and putin motion 29 snowball"of worldwide publicity. This publicity campaignquickly attracted the support of the Socialist Workers a tento with the American Left's break party Trotskyite group attempting (swP), forsocialism must raceto class.Efforts and blackliberation dencyto subordinate meetas equal partners, C. L. R. Jamesand Claude DeBrucehad persuadedtheir saw the need foran independent swP comrades. DeBruce,an African American,
29 Thisstrategy appearedthemoment thattheCold Wardid. "It is notRussiathatthreatens theUnitedStates so muchas Mississippi," the NationalAssociation forthe Advancement of ColoredPeople (NAACP) declaredin a 1947petition to theUnitedNations,"not Stalinand Molotov but Bilbo and Rankin." See Mary Dudziak, "Desegregation as a Cold WarImperative," StanfordLaw Review, 41 (Nov. 1988),95 and n201.In Birmingham, Martin Luther KingJr.explainedhis strategic vision:"The United Statesis . . . battling forthe mindsand the hearts of men in Asia and in Africa, and theyaren'tgonnarespect the United Statesof Americaif she deprives men and womenof thebasicrights oflifebecauseofthecoloroftheir skin." See Branch, Parting the WJaters, 791. The Time story (fromthe international editionof the magazine)was reprinted in MonroeEnquirer, Feb. 9, 1959, p. 1.
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onewithtiesto theNAACP, thatcould"project blackpolitical leadership, preferably in the interest Williams Thus whenRobert a program of the mass of Negroes." himon his from the blackSouthin 1958,theswP stoodpoised to assist emerged carried in 1958,theMilitant, dozens own terms. theSWP'snewspaper, Beginning on the "kissing case" alone. of articles about Williamsand Monroe-twenty-five theanticolonial their reports on theCuban revolution, Thatcoverage overshadowed in the African in the Belgian Congo, and all the otherdevelopments uprising Americanfreedom combined."TheyknewI wasn'tgoing to join any struggle in them." he recalled, "becauseI had made thatplain. I wasn'tinterested party," was not true.RobertWilliams"has some audaciousplans The reverse, however, wrote."Indeed, whichI thinkare feasible," the swP organizer GeorgeWeissman of becoming a real he has the possibility the moreI see of him the moreI think Negroleader."30 With logistical assistance from the swP, Williamsaddressed audiencesat labor across the country. Soon the "kissand collegeauditoriums halls,liberalchurches, Governor Hodges to pages aroundthe globe,forcing ing case" emblazonedfront hirea teamof professors from of NorthCarolinaat Chapel Hill to the University of letters translate the tensof thousands thatpouredintohis office. JohnShure, that Agency (USIA) at the Hague, reported head oftheUnitedStatesInformation does not he had received "eventhoughthe response overtwelve thousandletters WhiletheWhiteHouse and theStateDepartment appearto havebeenorganized." relations, Williamshad expressed alarmat the damage to United Statesforeign the U.S. a readyanswer. of sparing "It is asinineforcoloredpeople to eventhink he "If the is StateDepartment U.S. embarrassment government abroad," replied. a society thatwillstandup so concerned about itsimageabroad,thenlet it create underworldscrutiny."31 ofhisown,aiming, a publicrelations Governor campaign Hodgessoonlaunched of as an aide urgedthe governor, "give the a taste its own medicine to NAACP in yourdebt."The aide suggested to the . . .[and] place the wholeConfederacy at the communist we mightbe able connection, that"byhitting directly governor of theseprotests." The FederalBureau of to convince people of the insincerity informed Governor that Hodges "Robert Williamshas been under Investigation fora considerable periodof time"and that"youwould have access investigation if youdesire." The ensuingsmearcampaignasserted to thisinformation thatthe affair of the boys entire had been "a Communist-directed thatthefamilies front," were"shiftless mother had "a and thatHanoverThompson's and irresponsible," for in prostitution." The USIA and theStateDepartreputation usingherdaughters ment broadcast fewmindsand fewer aroundthe world,winning these charges
30Claude DeBruce,"On theNegroQuestion," swP Discussion Bulletin (July 1956),1-5, box 1,Socialist WorkersParty Papers(State Historical Society of Wisconsin); Jones,"'Communist FrontShoutsKissingCase to the World,"'44; Williamsinterview by Cohen, transcript, pp. 562-63; GeorgeWeissman to Carl Braden,Feb. 19, 1959, box 1, Committee to CombatRacial Injustice Papers(StateHistorical Society of Wisconsin). 31 Robert E. Gilesto WilliamC. Friday, Feb. 6, 1959,box423, HodgesPapers. JohnShure's comments areexin BasilL. Whitener cerpted to Hodges,March 2, 1959,ibid. ForWilliams's see Crusader, remarks, Aug. 1962,p. 4.
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hearts.Threeand a halfmonths after Hanoverand Sissyhad kissedeach other, Governor announcedthat"thehome Hodges,underenormous political pressure, have improved conditions to the extent that the boyscan be givenconditional release."32 "The kissing case,"the activist lawyer ConradLynnobserved years later,"was in national The case not the case thatgot[Williams] and international attention." in theAmerican onlyfurnished Williams witha network ofseasonedactivists Left in Harlem. but witha growing numberof supporters among black nationalists Audley "Queen Mother" Moore, an important figure in bothCommunist and black nationalist circles in Harlemfrom the 1920sto the 1970s,organized support for to Louis Michaux'sNational Memorial Williams. He became a regularvisitor African Bookstore on Seventh Avenueoff125thStreet, whereMichaux welcomed Williams to thepodiumthestore for thelegendary Harlemstreet provided speakers oftheday. 33The mostimportant ofWilliams's contacts amongtheHarlemnationalistswas MalcolmX, minister at the Nationof Islam'sTempleno. 7. "Every time I used to go to New York he wouldinvite me to speak," Williams recalled. Malcolm would tell his congregation is herefrom "that'our brother NorthCarolina,and he is the onlyfighting man thatwe havegot,and we havegot to help him so he can staydownthere,"' Williamsrecounted. Williamsfoundready support among Harlemintellectuals, including JulianMayfield, JohnHenrikClarke, JohnOliver in Monroe and political Killens,and other literary figures. "Theyall sawsomething - an immediately thatdid notactually exist revolutionary situation," HaroldCruse in an unpublished observed. Later, autobiography, JulianMayfield disclosed that "a famous blackwriter made contact withgangsters in NewJersey and boughtme I tookto Monroe." twosub-machine wasnotthebest-known gunswhich Williams blackleaderin the United States,but he mayhave been the bestarmed.34 The "kissing newalliesforWilliams,but it launchedhim on a case" recruited
32 John Feb. 23, 1959,box423, HodgesPapers;Sharpeto Hodges,Feb. 12, 1959,ibid.; Briggs to Bill Sharpe, Front to Hodges,n.d.,ibid; Chester Davis,"Communist Feb. 19, 1959,ibid; 0. L. Richardson Hodgesto Sharpe, Journal and Sentinel, Feb. 8, 1959,p. 1; MonroeEnquirer, Winston-Salem Shouts'KissingCase' to the World," Feb. 16, 1959,p. 1. 33 Conrad Lynn Collection;Muhammed pp. 4-5, Ralph Bunche Oral History [1975], transcript, interview, Jo Buhle,Paul Buhle,and Dan Left, ed. Mari oftheAmerican in Encyclopedia Moore," Ahmed,"Queen Mother podiumincludedMalstreetfront who used the bookstore's (Urbana,1992),486-87. Otherspeakers Georgakas Davis. See Kleytus "Porkchop" and Edward Rupert Lawson, James PowellJr., CarlosCooks, colmX, AdamClayton (New York,1975),46. See also 1960-1970 Movements, TheHarlemCultural/Political Smithand Abiola Sinclair, 1993), 29. of a Meeting(Melbourne, Meali, Fidel and MalcolmX. Memories Rosemari 34 Williams foundthealliance BureauofInvestigation interview pp. 382-83. The Federal byCohen,transcript, in con"recent activities office aboutWilliams's NorthCarolina, hisCharlotte, warned J. EdgarHoover alarming; See Director thata filebe openedon thatconnection. and ordered withtheNationofIslamat New York" nection ofthe F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile. Cruse,Crisis June18, 1959,"Robert to SpecialAgentin Charge,Charlotte, autobiography, JulianMayfield The Lido,"[1975?],draft "TalesFrom 358-59;JulianMayfield, NegroIntellectual, N.Y.). I am grateful New York, PublicLibrary, NewYork Research in BlackCulture, Center for Papers(Schomburg who adblackwriter" Amiri Baraka(thenLeRoiJones)is a "famous thesematerials. to KevinGainesforsharing but also had King'sphilosophy" Martin Luther and in 1959-1960notonlyhad "rejected miredWilliamsgreatly Baraka,TheAutobiography See Amiri stepforward?" concluded a poemwiththeline,"Will themachinegunners nordenied havingsuppliedthe confirmed Barakaneither (Chicago,1997), 237. In an interview ofLeJoiJones An anonymous but possession). April9, 1998,notes(in Tyson's byTyson, Barakainterview guns.Amiri machine confirms thathe did. reliablesourceinterview
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collision course withtheNAACP hierarchy. Sincethe Scottsboro trials of the 1930s, the NAACP had steadfastly shunnedso-calledsex casesand politicalalliancesthat might leavetheorganization open to red-baiting. ShouldtheNAACP "ever getidentified withcommunism," KellyAlexander, head oftheNorthCarolinaConference ofBranches, told a reporter, "theKu Klux Klan and theWhiteCouncilswillpick thatwe are'reds'and use it as a clubto beatus to death." Differences up thecharge over strategy became bitter;Alexandercomplainedto the nationaloffice that his backon the one organization Williams"has completely turned thatis responsible forhim beingin the spotlight today," whileWilliamsgripedthatAlexander "soundsmorelikea Tomthanever." Roy Wilkins, executive secretary ofthenational to Williamsin private organization, began to refer as "Lancelot of Monroe."35 Just as the "kissing case"headlines fadedin thespring of 1959,twonewsstories fromotherpartsof the South grippedblackAmerica.One was the lynching of MackCharlesParker, accusedof rapinga whitewomanin Mississippi. When MississippiNAACP fieldsecretary MedgarEvers heardthatParker had been dragged his cell he from and murdered bya mob, told his wife, "I'd liketo geta gun and The other start shooting." wastheterrifying ordealoffour young blackcollegestudentsat FloridaAgricultural and Mechanical Theirdouble date after University. a college dance was interrupted by fourwhitemen withguns and knives.The drunken assailants who had vowed,as one of themtestified in courtlater,"to go out and get some nigger the two eighteen-year-old forced pussy," black men to kneelat gunpoint whilethey undressed thetwowomenand decidedaloud which one they wouldkidnapand thengang-rape. In thewakeofthesehighly publicized in Wilkins letter "NOT outrages, conceded a marked FOR PUBLICATION" that "I knowthethought ofviolence has been muchin themindsofNegroes." Byearly the NAACP foundit "harder May,Wilkinsadmitted, and harder to keep feelings fromboilingoverin some of our branches."36 on theheelsoftheParker and theterrors in Tallahassee, twopressRight lynching ing local matters brought RobertWilliamsand a crowdof blackwomento the with Union County courthouse. B. F. Shaw,a whiterailroad wascharged engineer, an African American maid at the Hotel Monroe.Another attacking inflammatory wasaccused case wasslatedfor trialthesameday.Lewis Medlin,a whitemechanic, RuthReid,a pregnant ofhavingbeatenand sexually assaulted blackwoman, Mary and in the presence of her fivechildren. to Williams,Reid's brothers According
35 Dan T. Carter, Goodman, South(BatonRouge,1969).See alsoJames A Tragedy oftheAmerican Scottsboro: 1; Alexander Front Shouts 'Kissing Case' to theWorld," 1994).Davis,"Communist (NewYork, Stories ofScottsboro in Reference to the Case of Branches of Activities of the NorthCarolinaStateConference to Wilkins,"Report Dec. 17, 1958, NorthCarolina";Williamsto Weissman, of David SimpsonandJamesH. ThompsonofMonroe, "Personal, Not ForPublication," Papers;Wilkinsto P. L. Prattis, to Combat Racial Injustice box 1, Committee May 28, 1959,p. 1, box A333, NAACP Papers. 36 HowardSmead,BloodJustice: Parker (New York,1986); Mrs.MedgarEvers ofMack Charles TheLynching oftheSecretary to theBoard Wilkins, "Report 1970), 194;Roy (New York, ForUs,theLiving with WilliamPeters, Post,May 3, 1959,p. of Directors forthe Monthof April1959,"box A333, NAACPPapers.See also Washington June Courier, 4; Durham CarolinaTimes,May 23, 1959,p. 1; New YorkTimes,May 7, 1959,p. 22; Pittsburgh Not ForPublication"; "Personal, Observer, May 3, 1959,p. 1. Wilkinsto Prattis, 20, 1959, p. 3; and Charlotte ofRoy Wilkins (New York,1982), 265. Fast: The Autobiography RoyWilkins,Standing
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several oftheblackwomenoftheMonroe NAACP had urged thatthenewmachine guns be triedout on Medlinbefore his trial."I told themthatthismatter would be handledthrough thelaw and theNAACP wouldhelp,"Williams recalled, "that we would be as bad as the whitepeople if we resorted to violence."37 The proceedings againstthe twowhitemen compelledWilliamsto reconsider hisassessment. The judgedropped thecharges against Shawalthough he had failed evento appearin court. Duringthe brief trialofMedlin,his attorney arguedthat he had been "drunk and havinga littlefun"at the timeof the assault.Further, He gestured toward Mary RuthReid,whobeganto cry uncontrollably. Lewis Medlin in minutes. wasacquitted Robert in the Williams recalled that"the[black]women courtroom made suchan outcry, thejudge had to send Medlinout thereardoor." The womenthenturnedon Williamsand bitterly shamedhim forfailing to see to theirprotection.38 ofangerand humiliation, At thisburning moment Williams turned to wireservicereporters and declared thatit wastimeto "meetviolence withviolence." Black citizens unable to enlist thesupport of thecourts mustdefend themselves. "Since thefederal willnotstoplynching, and sincetheso-called courts government lynch "ifit's necessary our people legally," he declared, to stop lynching withlynching, The nextday,however, thenwe mustresort to thatmethod." Williamsdisavowed thereference "I do notmeanthatNegroes to lynching. shouldgo out and attempt to get revenge formistreatments he said, "but it is clearthatthere or injustice," is no Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment norcourt protection ofNegroes'rights here,and Negroeshaveto defendthemselves on the spotwhenthey are attacked bywhites."39 Bannerheadlinesflagged of "a new militancy thesewordsas symbols among reoftheSouth."EnemiesoftheNAACP blamedthis"bloodthirsty young Negroes of mark" on the national office. officials the squarely "High organization mayspeak in cultivated accentsand dresslike Wall Street ThomasWaringof the lawyers," Charleston News and Courier "but theyare engagedin a revolutionary charged, when he read the words"meet violencewith enterprise." That verymorning, violence"in a UnitedPressInternational (uPI) dispatch, RoyWilkinstelephoned him thathe had been removed from his postas presiRobert Williamsto inform
dent of the Monroe NAACP.40 Medlin was married,his lawyertold the jury,"to a lovelywhite woman . . . the of life . . . do you thinkhe would have leftthis pure flower pure flower forthat?"
convention of the NAACP preof 1959, the fiftieth That summer anniversary
Post, Jan.27, 1959,p. 4; ibid., 9, 1959,p. 1; New York 3' MonroeEnquirer, Jan.26, 1959,p. 1; ibid., March April1963,p. 4; Durham CarolinaTimes,Feb. 7, 1959, May 7, 1959,p. 1; ibid., Nov. 11,1959,p. 1; Crusader, p. 2; ibid.,Jan. 31, 1959,p. 1. 38 Williamsinterview May 7, 1959,p. 1; 18 (Jan. 1960), 3; MonroeEnquirer, Patriot, by Mosby;Southern byMosby. Front ShoutsKissingCase to the World,"'127; Williamsinterview Jones,"'Communist May7, 1959, 39 "Rec'd Times, UPi -May 6, 1959," boxA333,NAACPPapers.See alsoNew York viaphonefrom Brief ForResponF Williams, Respondent, Against Robert Complainant, Executive Secretary, Wilkins, p. 22. "Roy dent,"1-2, box A333, NAACP Papers. 40 New York [SouthCarolina] p. 1; Charleston State-Times, Times,May 7, 1959,p. 22; Jackson [Mississippi] May6, 1959,box A333, NAACPPapers. May 7, 1959,p. 1; Wilkinsto Williams,telegram, News and Courier,
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issuewaswhether senteda highly the nationalorpublicshowtrialwhosecentral of RobertWilliams.The national ganizationwould ratify Wilkins'ssuspension office a pamphlet, The SingleIssue in theRobertWilliams printed Case, and disit to all delegates.As partof the coordinated effort to crush tributed Williams, of the FBI on June4, 1959,and visitedthe New Yorkoffices ThurgoodMarshall "inconnection to investigate with[Marshall's] efforts to comurgedagents Williams the NAACP," an FBI memorandum bat communist to infiltrate stated. attempts in an unmistakable Wilkinstwisted availablearm.Gov. NelsonRockefeller, every reference to thewhisper campaign to discredit Williams, tookthepodiumto conthe NAACP for"rejecting the gratulate retaliation againstterror" and "repulsing of communism threat to invadeyour ranks." heroDaisy Bates,thepistol-packing ine ofLittle Rock,agreedto denounceWilliams for advocating self-defense -after the nationaloffice to buysixhundreddollarsa monthin "advertising" consented hernewspaper. from "The nationaloffice not onlycontrolled theplatform," Louis Lomaxwrote, but "theysubjectedthe Williamsforces to a heavybombardment from the NAACP's big guns."Forty speakers, including Bates,King,Jackie Robinson, and dozens of distinguished rose one after lawyers, the otherto denounce Williams.Butwhentheburly from Monroe ex-Marine strode downtheaisle finally to speak,he was neither norpenitent.41 intimidated "Thereis no Fourteenth in thissocialjunglecalledDixie,"Williams Amendment declared."Thereis no equal protection underthe law."He had been angry, they all knew, trials had besethim,but never had he intended to advocate actsofwar. no one believedthat.But if the blackmen of Poplarville, had Surely Mississippi, to bandedtogether guardthejail thenight thatMackParker waslynched, he said, thatwouldnothavehurt If theyoung thecauseofjustice. blackmenwhoescorted theco-edwhowasrapedin Tallahassee had been able to defend her,Williamsremindedthem,such actionwouldhave been legal and justified "evenif it meant thattheythemselves or the whiterapists werekilled.""Please,"he besought the "I askyounotto comecrawling to thesewhites on your handsand knees assembly, and makeme a sacrificial lamb."42 And therethe pleadingstopped.Perhapsthe spirit of his grandfather, Sikes theformer forinterracial slavewho had fought and wielded Williams, democracy a rifle white him.Perhaps roseup within he heardwithin himself against terrorists, the voiceof his grandmother, who had entrusted thatrifle to youngRobert. "We as men shouldstandup as men and protect our womenand children," Williams declared."I am a man and I will walkupright as a man should. I WILL NOT In a controversy CRAWL." thattheDurhamCarolinaTimescalled"thebiggest civil of the year," rights story theNAACP convention votedto upholdthesuspension of
41 The SingleIssue in the RobertWilliams Case, pamphlet, box 2, Committee to Combat Racial Injustice Papers.SpecialAgentin Charge, NewYork, to Director, telegram, June5, 1959,"Thurgood FBI Subject Marshall" File (J. EdgarHooverFBI Building, Washington, D.C.). My thanks to Alex Charnsforsharing thesedocuments obtainedundertheFreedom ofInformation Act.New York Times, July14, 1959,p. 1; Batesto Wilkins, July 23, 1959,box 1, BatesPapers;LouisLomax,The NegroRevolt(New York,1962), 112-14. 42 July25, 1959,p. 1. Crusader,
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RobertWilliams.The day after Daisy Bates had urgedthe assembly to censure Robert Williams for hisvowto defend hishomeand family, shewiredtheattorney of theUnitedStatesto complainabout dynamite general attacks on herhome in Little shesaid.Williams Rock:"Wehavebeencompelled to employ private guards," "I am sorry wroteto Batessoon afterward: to hearthatthe whiteracists have decided to stepup their campaign against you.It is obviousthatifyouareto remain in Little Rock you will have to resortto the method I was suspended for advocating."43 Against thisbackdrop of whitelawlessness and politicalstalemate in 1959 and the local movement in Monroe early1960,Robert Williamsmovedto strengthen underlined thefact and to reachout to a national audience.ThoughWilliams that "bothsidesin thefreedom movement his emerging reinare bi-racial," philosophy ofthe blacknationalist whoseforceful reemervigorated manyelements tradition gencein themid-1960s wouldbecomeknown as BlackPower. His militant message norrigidly was neither racially separatist ideological.Williamsstressed blackeconomicadvancement, blackpride,blackculture, independent blackpolitical action, and whathe referred He connected to as "armedself-reliance." the southern freedom struggle ofemerging withtheanticolonialism ThirdWorldnations, especially in Africa. In the late 1950s,whenotherintegrationists focused on lunchcounters on addressing and voterregistration, Williamsinsisted black poverty: persistent thatin Montgomery, where in thefront of "We mustconsider Negroesare riding buses," he said, "there His approach are also Negroeswho are starving." waspracin the freedom tical, eclectic,and improvisational. There must be "flexibility he mustemerge from struggle," argued,and tactics theconfrontation itself. At the coreofhisappeal,however, stoodhis callsfor absoluteracialequality undera fully enforced UnitedStatesConstitution, resistance to white backedbyan unyielding supremacy.44 In pursuit of thisuncompromising visionof interracial democracy, Robert Willikehis grandfather him. Twoweeks liamsbecamean editor and publisher before the 1959NAACPconvention, FBI agents after thatblack reported toJ.EdgarHoover children were a newsletter known as TheCrusader on thestreets ofMonroe." "selling Itstitlehonored thelate Cyril V. Briggs, Harlemorganizer oftheleft-wing African BlackBrotherhood, whosenewspaper ofthesamename had issueda "Declaration ofWaron theKu Klux Klan" in 1921.The Crusader's mission was self-proclaimed "ADVANCINGTHE CAUSE OF RACE PRIDE AND FREEDOM." Soon sample
43 Pittsburgh Courier, July 25, 1959,p. 1; Crusader, July 25, 1959,p. 1; DurhamCarolinaTimes, Jan. 5, 1960, p. 1. With respect to the obviousgenderpolitics at work here,see note 1 above.Daisy Bates,TheLong Shadow of LittleRock:A Memoir(New York,1962), 162; Williamsto Bates,Aug. 19, 1959, box 2, Bates Papers. 44 Andrew F. Williamsand theBlackFreeMyers, "WhenViolenceMetViolence:Factsand ImagesofRobert in Monroe, dom Struggle NorthCarolina"(M.A. thesis, ofVirginia, University 1993),44-45; Williams, Negroes on Williams withGuns,ed. Schlieffer, 40. Foran attack as insufficiently see Cruse,Crisis ideological, oftheNegro Intellectual, 358-59, 382-401.It is timeto reconsider theprovisional and eclectic homegrown radicalism thatblack southerners developed in thelate 1950sand early1960s.See, for example, Clayborne Carson,"Rethinking AfricanAmerican Political Thoughtin the Post-Revolutionary Era,"in TheMakingofMartin Luther King and the Civil ed. BrianWardand Tony Rights a historical Movement, Badger (New York, 1997),115-27;and,for account, Payne, I've Got the Lightof Freedom.
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mailingsyieldedseveralthousandsubscribers acrossthe country. Shortly after Williams beganto spread hisconfrontational appealsin theCrusader, thefirst publishedbiography of Martin Luther KingJr.appeared,written bya member of the The book was SouthernChristian board of directors. LeadershipConference's thetitlewasintended reentitled Crusader without Violence. Whether as a direct joinderto Williamsor not, it situatedthe book withina livelyand important in recent "The great debatein theintegration movement months," AnneBraden of the Southern Educational Fund wrotein late 1959,"has been the Conference questionofviolence vs. nonviolence as instruments of change." Harry Boyte, soon Luther first whiteaide, observed to be Martin that"the idea of striking KingJr.'s back... meets ofthesoutha steady response amongthedowntrodden, grass roots ernNegropopulation." Forseveral years, Boyteargued,Robert Williams"has sucin Union County ceeded in reaching thesegrass roots," exercising "great influence and beyond becauseofhismilitant position and refusal to submit to intimidation." to morepeaceful and non-violent methods ofsolving Williams"posesa realthreat our problems." The FBI, too,remained uneasyabout Williams's expanding range of contacts.Hoover'sfiles,agentsreported, "reflect numerousinstances where groupsin various sections of thecountry haveproclaimed and demonstrated their withWilliamsand have senthim money."46 sympathies the FBI but also the mostinfluential advocates of nonviolence felt Not merely In a series ofpublic compelledto deal withRobert Williams's growing reputation. debates in New YorkCity,Williamsfaced A. J. Muste,BayardRustin,David is a powerful Dellinger, and others. "Nonviolence weaponin the struggle against social evil,"Williams conceded. "It represents the ultimatestep in revolution a type ofstruggle wherein manmaymakewarwithintolerable against oppression, out debasinghimself." The problem, to Williams, was thatthe success according of nonviolence he noted,wereimmune dependedon the adversary; rattlesnakes, in the South. "When Hitler'styranny to moralappeals, as werewhiteterrorists he argued,"we did not hearmuchabout how immoral it threatened the world," his is to meetviolencewithviolence." "drew a audience to Williams large debate withthepacifists," to CarlBradenin Louisville, oftheswP wrote GeorgeWeissman "and handledhimself quite well."47
45 "From Charlotte SACTo Director," July 31, 1959,"Robert F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile. ForCyril V. Briggs's 1921"Declaration ofWaron the Ku Klux Klan,"see Shapiro,WhiteViolence and BlackResponse, 208-9, 495n. WilliamstoldRobert A. Hill that"many V. Briggs and his Crusader" and that years ago [he had] heardof Cyril he had adoptedthenamein honorofBriggs. See Cyril Briggs, The Crusader, Cyril V Briggs, ed. Robert A. Editor, Hill (New York,1987), xlviii.L. D. Reddick,Crusader withoutViolence:A Biography of Martin Luther King, (New York,1959). Jr. 46 Southern 18 (Jan. 1960), 3; Harry and the Unfinished Business of Democracy," Patriot, Boyte, "Education draft, n.d., box 26, BoyteFamily Papers(Perkins Library). Groupscitedincludechapters of the NAACPand the ofRacialEquality, theNationofIslam,and theFairPlayForCuba Committee. Congress See "Director to Charlotte F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile. SAC," Sept. 18, 1961,"Robert 47 Weissman to Braden,Oct. 20, 1959,box49, Carland AnneBradenPapers(StateHistorical ofWisSociety consin).See also Crusader, Oct. 3, 1959,p. 6. Thereare reports of debatesat New York's Community Church, F. Williams" Oct. 1, 1959,and theLibertarian Center, Oct. 23, 1959,in memo,Oct. 17, 1961,"Robert FBI Subject File.
discussion.45
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A widely reprinted debatein thepagesofLiberation magazinepittedWilliams against Dr. Martin Luther KingJr.Againcareful to endorse King'smethods wherever they proved feasible, that Williams advocated "armed self-reliance," explaining whitevigilantes, "thereis open defianceto law and order among well-armed the Southtoday." throughout Wherelaw had broken down,he said, it was necesis a very to defendhome and family. saryand right "Nonviolence potentweapon when the opponentis civilized,but nonviolence is no repellent fora sadist," in theannalsofhistory Williamsnoted."Nowhere does the record showa people from delivered bondagebypatiencealone."48 Dr. King concededthatwhiteviolenceand whiteintransigeance had brought to "a stageof profound crisis." African the movement Americans werefrustrated, he said,and the"current callsfor violence" reflected "a confused, anger-motivated driveto strike The SupremeCourt's1954 mandateand eventhe backviolently." triumph at Montgomery had yieldedsmalltokens, elaborate evasions, and widespreadterror. Onlythree responses presented themselves. One couldpractice "pure nonviolence," King said, but thispath "couldnot readily attract largemasses, for it requiresextraordinary A positionthat encompassed disciplineand courage." legitimate self-defense was morepractical. King pointedout that "all societies, from the mostprimitive to the mostcultured and civilized, accept[self-defense] as moral and legal.The principle ofself-defense, eveninvolving and bloodweapons shed,has never beencondemned, evenbyGandhi."Herewaswhere Kingthepoliin self-defense," ticiansensedhis constituency. "When the Negrouses force King continued, "he does notforfeit -he mayevenwinit, bythe courage support and it reflects." This widelyacceptedpositionwas, of course,precisely self-respect Williams's view-whichwas King'sproblem.49 The third of and mostunacceptable position, King argued,was "the advocacy violenceas a tool of advancement, and conorganized as in warfare, deliberately to casthis adversary. sciously." Here,then,wasthepale beyond which Kingsought "Mr.Robert Williams wouldhaveus believethatthere is no collective or practical "He arguesthatwe mustbe cringing and submissive alternative," King insisted. or takeup arms." Dr. King had invented his own Robert Essentially, Williams,a black Geronimoplottingmilitary strikes againstthe whiteman, and he then in responded to thatRobert Williams. Lacking theological training and combative his manner, But the philoWilliamsmade himself to thiscaricature. vulnerable - preferring nonwhichKing centered his own argument sophicalpositionfrom "theprinciple violence ofself-defense, eveninvolving but endorsing weaponsand -was precisely the place whereWilliamshad takenhis stand.50 bloodshed" The King-Williams themovement as Williams debateresonated bethroughout
48 Robert F. Williams,"Can NegroesAfford to Be Pacifists?," Liberation, 4 (Sept. 1959),4-7; Martin Luther KingJr.,"The Social Organization of Nonviolence," ibid. (Oct. 1959), 5-6. Williamsand King appearside by side,withan excellent commentary byAnneBraden,in Southern Patriot, 18 (Jan. 1960),3. Abbreviated versions may be foundin Carsonet al., eds., The Eyeson the PrizeReader(New York,1991),110-13. 49 King, "Social Organization of Nonviolence," 5-6. 50 Ibid.
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the alternative to bothtactical as gan "to symbolize nonviolence and nonviolence in his memoir, a wayoflife," asJames Forman ofSNCC wrote TheMakingofBlack "were twoopposedviews," Revolutionaries. Kingand Williams supposedto present not seem to be at crossaccordingto Forman,but "in my analysis, theydid purposes." JulianBond, thena student activist in Atlanta(in 1998he becamethe head of the NAACP), recalls readingthe debate and "believing thatWilliamsgot the better ofit" and "thatWilliams wasnotthefigure King and others depicted." and mostSNCC activists considered nonviolence Bond, Forman, purelya tactical stance.Nonviolence as tactics offered a wayto avoid "being wiped out,"SNCC's Timothy Jenkins reflected, but "ifyouhad thecapacity at anygiven timeto defend withviolence, therewerea number of people who werepreyourself successfully in witha commentary, paredto use it at all times." W. E. B. Du Bois weighed also in whichhe discouraged entitled "Crusader without Violence," applausefor King's ofRobert In Montgomery, critique Williams. he wrote, Kinghad "stoodfirm without surrender," or but Du Bois considered it "a very gravequestionas to whether not theslavery and degradation ofNegroesin America has notbeen unnecessarily prolonged by the submission to evil."51 Morethanthepersuasive skills oftheir elders, thebold actions ofAfrican American collegestudents set thesephilosophical debatesaside and gavethe battalions ofnonviolence their brief butcompelling historical moment. On February 1, 1960, four from students NorthCarolinaAgricultural and Technical into Collegewalked in Greensboro, Woolworth's sat downat a segregated lunchcounter, and askedto the sit-ins be served. Withintwomonths, had spreadto fifty-four communities acrossnine statesof the old Confederacy, movement with infusing the freedom fresh and newtactics. troops "Onlyin 1960,whenblackstudents entered thefray in largenumbers, on segregation did a broadassault becomepossible," AdamFairclough points out. "Young people made up the initialphalanx,the entering 16 to encourage the wedge."King flewto Durham,NorthCarolina,on February students witha speech,telling themthattheir was "destined to be one of protest He returned to Atlantathefollowing the glowing epicsof our time." day."While others were innovative ofnonviolent direct methods pioneering action," Fairclough the newtactics observes, "King seemedstrangely ambivalent about embracing by in his praiseof the lunchcounter fulsome personalexample.Although protests, forexample, he showedlittleinterest to lead a sit-in himself."52 a dozen blackyouths into On March1, by contrast, Robert Williamsfollowed in arrested. Monroeand was the only person Gamble's Drug Store downtown in handcuffs, Marcheddownthe street a shotgun-toting side of guardon either as "the dangerous him,Williamsspoofedhimself stool-sitter bandit"and vowed in mylife." in Monroemounted thathe had "never felt prouder Younginsurgents
51 JamesForman, The Makingof BlackRevolutionaries (1972; Seattle,1997), 158-59; JulianBond to TimothyB. Tyson, Sept. 5, 1997 (in Tyson's possession); Fundhi;W. E. B. Du Bois, "Crusader without Violence," National Guardian, Nov. 9, 1959. 52 Chafe, Civilities and CivilRights, 71-72; Fairclough, ToRedeemtheSoul ofAmerica, 54-55; Garrow, Bearing the Cross,128; Branch, Parting the Waters, 276; Fairclough, To Redeemthe Soul ofAmerica,57-58.
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"The Negroes an aggressive campaign ofsit-ins thatdisplayed itsownunique style. remainedin each storeonly a shorttime,"the CharlotteObserver reported, "usuallyuntilmanagement closedthe counters." Undercourtorders to abide by the law or faceimprisonment, Williamsdefiedthe judge and marched withhis youngtroops."We'reusing hit-and-run tactics," Williamstold reporters. "They never knowwhenwe'recomingor whenwe'regoingto leave.That waywe hope to wearthemdown," he said, managing to soundlikea platoonleaderevenwhile in a passiveresistance participating campaign."Theywerealwaysdoing somethemanager ofJonesDrug Storerecalled."It'sa wonder thing," somebody didn't kill him."It was no mystery in to Williams;the main difference between sit-ins Monroe and elsewhere wasthat"nota single demonstrator wasevenspatupon during our sit-ins," Williamsclaimed.53 The uneasy in largemeasure peace in Monroe wouldsoon be broken, byfollowin theNashville ersof Dr. King.In 1961, Rev.Paul Brooks, an activist movestudent mentinvestigating for sCLc,andJames Forman, soonto becomepresident ofSNCC, of seventeen came to Monroein the company Freedom Riders fresh out of jail in in Monroeto launcha rather The younginsurgents Jackson, Mississippi. arrived in Robert incoherent nonviolent campaign Williams's backyard; someparticipants, including Forman, sought to support Williams, whowasunderenormous pressure theKu Klux Klan; others from wanted to prove Williams wrong. One oftheFree"Mr. dom Riders announcedthathe had come to Monroebecausehe considered RobertF Williamsto be the mostdangerous personin America." Another prois to remain claimed:"Ifthefight for civilrights nonviolent, we mustbe successful in Monroe. in many Whathappens herewilldetermine thecourse taken other communities the South."54 throughout theFreedom welcomed Riders Williams buthad a similar warmly understanding ofthestakes. "I sawit first as a challenge," he recalled, "but I also saw it as an opto showthatwhat King and themwerepreaching Two was bullshit." portunity weeksofpicketing moreperiat theUnion County Courthouse grew progressively of hostilewhiteonlookers lous forthe FreedomRiders.Crowds and grewlarger furious on Sundayafternoon, thousand larger. Finally, August 28, a mob ofseveral white people attackedthe approximately thirty demonstrators, badly injuring In his classic the bleedingprotesters. manyofthem;local police arrested memoir, The Making of Black Revolutionaries, JamesFormanlater called this riot his I shallnever ofSCLC, ofdeath," To theconsternation "moment "a nightmare forget." deteriorated thecomthenonviolent crusade intomobviolence; swiftly throughout whitevigilantes attacked fifteen shotsinto munity, blackcitizens and evenfired
53 Criminal Record75CR9796,March11, 1960 (Union CountyCourthouse, ObMonroe,N.C.); Charlotte March 9, 1960,p. 1; ibid., March 22, 1960,p. 7-A; Crusader, May 14, 1960,pp. 1-2; W. R. Maytelephone server, interview byTyson, May26, 1994,notes(in Tyson's possession); Williams, NegroeswithGuns,ed. Schlieffer, 68. 54 Crusader, Aug. 21, 1961,p. 3; JamesForman telephoneinterview byTyson, Jan. 17, 1997,audiotape(in Tyson's possession). "We have been friends withMr.Williams," JosephMcDonald,a Freedom Riderfrom New York, toldreporters, "butwe haveno realconnection withhim,becausehe believes in thedefensive violence technique. That is to say,he would defendhis home."See RaleighNews and Observer, Aug. 29, 1961,p. 1.
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55 Williams.
thehomeoftheformer mayorJ. moderate whohad befriended RayShute,a white
At theheight ofthisviolent chaos,a whitemarried couple,forreasons thatare unclear, entered the blackcommunity and drove straight intoan angry blackmob milling nearRobert Williams's house. "Therewashundreds of niggers there," the Blackresiwhitewomanstated,"and they werearmed,theywerereadyforwar." werebeingbeaten dents,underthe impression thatthe demonstrators downtown and perhapsslaughtered, threatened to kill the whitecouple. Williams,though to defend hishome,rescued thetwowhites from themob and led busypreparing themintohis house,where forabout twohours.Whiteauthorities they remained latercharged Williamsand several otherpeople withkidnapping, althoughthe whitecouple met twopolice officers on their home their way and did not report I wasn't allegedabduction. The woman later conceded that"atthetime, eventhinking about beingkidnapped. . . the papers,the publicity and all thatstuff was what broughtin that kidnapping mess."During a long nightof racial terror, and walked several mileswithhis Williamsslunga machine gun overhisshoulder wifeand twosmallsonsto where JulianMayfield waitedwitha car."I didn'twant thoseracist of legally dogs to havethe satisfaction lynching me,"he explainedto Dr. Perry.56 The Williams to New York thenCanada, thenon to Cuba family fledfirst City, in search ofFBI agents to escapethehordes who combedthecountryside ofthem. ofWilliamsgloried in theescape.Some blackresidents Supporters ofMonroe still maintain thatFidelCastro senthelicopters for Williams.Others tellofhowhe got An agent fromCharlotte. awayin a hearseowned by a black funeraldirector his frustrations assignedto searchforWilliamslocallyreported to FBI director Hoover:"Subject has become something of a 'JohnBrown'to Negroesaround Monroeand theywill do anything forhim."57 The FBI dragnet never snared Williams, but it did not takeHooverlongto hear from him.Every Friday night from elevento midnight on Radio Havana,Williams hostedRadio FreeDixie, a program thatfrom1961to 1964 could be heardas far KPFARadio in Berkeley and WBAIin New York and LosAngeles. awayas New York
55 Williams interview G. Boyte to Truman byMosby; Forman, Making ofBlackRevolutionarizes, 193-98;Harry Nelson,Aug. 23, 1962,box 26, BoyteFamily Papers. 56 Mabel Stegall interview byAlgernon Watt,c. 1962,audiotape(in Tyson's possession). In interviews in 1961, Stegallconfirmed thatWilliamshad triedto prevent harmto herand herhusbandand thathe had notdetained them.See MonroeEnquirer, Aug. 31, 1961,p. 1; RaleighNewsand Observer, Aug. 29, 1961,p. 1. Investigative records generally confirm Williams's accounts oftheseevents. See Walter Anderson, StateBureauofInvestigation, Governor to Hugh Cannon,Office oftheGovernor, Sept. 14, 1961,box 111, Terry Sanford Papers(NorthCarolina Divisionof Archives An investigator of theNAACP,no admirer and History). forthe nationaloffice of Williams, wrote that"thecharges ofkidnapping against theso-called Monroe defendants areprobably without genuine substance." JohnMorsell to CloreWarne, March15, 1963,box A279, NAACPPapers.See also Boyte to Nelson,Aug. F. Williamsto "Doc," n.d., box 1, 23, 1962,box 26, Boyte Family Papers.The charges werelaterdropped.Robert WilliamsPapers. 57 The escape from Monroehas been shroudedin mystery. Williamswas reluctant to speak on thispoint, explaining thathe had pledgedto protect the manypeople who had helped his family. But he confirmed the outlines ofthisstory for me in an untapedinterview, Sept. 2, 1996. Julian Mayfield, whomWilliams had protected in Mayfield, The Lido,"Mayfield tellsthestory "TalesFrom byhis secrecy, Papers.SpecialAgentin Charge, Charlotte,to Director, teletype, Aug. 30, 1961,"Robert F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile.
oftheFreedom "Black Power" and theRoots Struggle
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Cityoccasionally rebroadcast theshow, and bootleg tapesoftheprogram circulated in Watts in Watts and Harlem.An activist wrote to Williams in 1962,"I am letting myothernationalist friends makecopies [of the tapes] and tellingeach of them to let someonemake a copyof theirs." Duringthe early1960sfolkrevival, Pete Williams the "Ballad of Monroe"all overthe country"Robert Seegerperformed troubadour was a leader,a giantof a man,"the leftist sang.FromCuba, Williams via Canada and sometimes whichwas distributed continued to editthe Crusader, 58 In 1962, Mexico, for a circulation thateventually grew to forty thousand. his book inNegroeswithGuns,publishedfrom Cuba, becamethe singlemostimportant soon to foundtheBlackPanther in influence on HueyP. Newton, tellectual Party A play based on NegroeswithGuns, FrankGreenwood's Oakland, California. If WeMustLive,ran in Wattsfrom and Julyto Decemberof 1965 to eagercrowds reviews. traveled down the Mississippi enthusiastic Copies of the Crusader back "thisleaflet roadswithStudentNonviolent Coordinating Committee organizers: the Missisis beingdistributed bySNCC and COFO workers amongU.S. Negroes," in the spring of 1964. Laterthat Commission sippi StateSovereignty complained year, whenSNCC began to veerawayfrom nonviolence, members citedWilliams in the fierce approvingly internal debates.59 As blackactivists beganto rejecteventhe tactical pretense of nonviolence, the influence of Robert Williamscontinued to spread.By spring1962 "the example of the NorthCarolinamilitant," AugustMeierand ElliottRudwick observe, had "had a profound effect" within theCongress ofRacialEquality self(CORE)."Armed - north - despitetheprodefense is a factof lifein blackcommunities and south nouncements ofthe'leadership,"' a North Carolina activist wrote to Williams. Long before Carmichael and Willie Ricksled the chantsof "BlackPower" that Stokely in the summer riveted of 1966,mostelements nationalmedia attention invoked in place. "Yourdoctrine of self-defense set bythatambiguous sloganwerealready the stageforthe acceptance of the Deacons ForDefenseand Justice," Lawrence
58 Williams interview in Charge, byCohen,transcript, pp. 622-23; SpecialAgent toDirectorJune Charlotte, 6, F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile; RobertPerkins 1963, p. 7, "Robert to Williams,Dec. 15, 1962, box 1, Williams Papers;KayGreaves, KPFARadio,to Williams, Aug. 19, 1963,ibid. The WilliamsPapers hold hundreds ofletters from listeners, manyof themin Los Angelesand some as farawayas the stateofWashington, and taped copies of the broadcasts. On Pete Seeger's "Ballad of Monroe," see "Bill" to Williams,April29, 1962,ibid.; and Gary Greento Williams,n.d., ibid. 59 Committee on theJudiciary, F Williams, Testimony ofRobert part1, Feb. 16, 1970,p. 39. On distribution oftheCrusader, see Williams interview byCohen,transcript, pp. 623-24; and Williams Authors whorange Papers. from bitter critics to uncritical admirers of HueyP. Newtonnonetheless him. See agreethatWilliamsinfluenced David Horowitz, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts about the Sixties(New York,1989), 146; Pearson, ShadowofthePanther, A SpecialRage (New York,1971),4. On theplayIf WeMustLive, 28; and Gilbert Moore, seeLosAngeles People'sWorld, July 3, 1965,p. 3; and Frank Greenwood toWilliams, Dec. 1, 1965,box 1,Williams Papers.The Crusader was popularin Watts,thoughit is absurdto blame Williamsforthe Wattsriotas many right-wing observers did. GeraldHorne, FireThisTime: The Woatts Uprising andthe 1960s(Charlottesville, 1995), 265, 268. Forthe complaint by the Mississippi StateSovereignty Commission, see observation attached to copy of Crusader, box 135, Johnson Family Papers(Manuscript Collections, ofSouthern University Mississippi, Hattiesburg).Mythanks to ElizabethA. Corris forlocating thesematerials forme. On use of the Crusader bymembers of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, see "Supplemental Correlation April19, 1969, Summary," F.Williams" "Robert FBI Subject File;and DannyLyons, Memories oftheSouthern Civi/Rights Movement (Chapel Hill, 1992), 147.
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September 1998
A gleeful incelebration F.Williams a cigar ofhissafe toHavana, smokes Robert Cuba,after passage in 1961. from a massive Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI) dragnet Federal. escaping Herman Williams. Courtesy ofJohn
in thespring toldWilliams of1966."Asquietas itis being theBlack Henry kept, tit-for-tat manis swinging from philosophy."60 your away Kingand adopting "AsI amcertain influence Williams's wasnotlimited totheSouth. yourealize," in 1965, in wrote to Williams Richard editor of New Now!magazine York, Gibson, removal from the scenemakes forAfro"Malcolm's spokesman youthesenior in is that American militants." Williams's 1966 reported "picture magazine Life in extremist in the big city haunts ghettos." Clayborne prominently displayed influences -theother as oneoftwo central Malcolm Carson names Williams being inOakland, X- on the1966 for Self-Defense formation oftheBlack Panther Party most militant ofthelate 1960s." lithe known black political organization widely
60 AugustMeierand ElliottRudwick, CORE: A Studyin the CivilRights Movement, 1942-1968(Urbana, 1975),202-4; ClydeAppleton toWilliams, Sept.20, 1965,box 1,Williams Papers;Slater Kingto Williams, Nov. 10, 1963,ibid.; Lawrence Henryto Williams,March31, 1966,ibid.
567
The Central in 1969byreportIntelligence Agency (CIA) exaggerated considerably ingthatWilliams "haslongbeentheideological leaderoftheBlackPanther Party." It is closer to saythatthe Panthers were"a logicaldevelopment" from thephilosin his 1971book,A Panther as Reginald ophyofWilliams, Is a Black Majorasserted he "talked Cat. According to Williams, to BobbySeale and Mrs.[Kathleen] Cleaver when[he] was in Africa" in 1968,and the leadership bytelephone "askedme to Minister becomeForeign ofthePanthers." At thatmoment, Williamshad already been namedpresident-in-exile oftwoofthemostinfluential nationrevolutionary alistgroups:the Revolutionary ActionMovement, whichthe CIA believedto be "the mostdangerous of all the BlackPower organizations," and the Detroit-based Republicof New Africa, an influential groupwithhundredsof members that in Mississippi, soughtto establish an independent blackrepublic Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia,and South Carolina."Despite his overseas the CIA reactivities," portedin 1969,"Williamshas managedto becom[e]an outstanding figure, posin the black extremist in the United sibly the outstanding figure, movement Eventhough he becamefriends with Che Guevara and FidelCastro himself, Williamsgrewuneasyin Cuba; he yearned to return home. As the Sovietstrings on the Cuban revolution shortened, Williamsresisted pressure to makehis ownpoliticsconform to theSoviet line.As early as 1962,whenWilliams had been in Cuba forlessthana year, an FBI informant statedthatWilliamshad "stubbed his toes" with Cuban Communists through his "criticism of [the] Communist Party for and that he "may not be able to regainhis barring Negroesfromleadership" "I am underconstant footing." attackby the [UnitedStatesCommunist Party]," in themid-1960s. Williams wrote to a friend aretrying to cutoff "They myfacilities here in Cuba. One would thinkI am Hitlerand Wall Streetcombined." The Stalinists were"getting worse thanthe crackers in Monroe," Williamscomplained in 1964. "Thingsare about to the stagewhenI had to leave Monroein a hurry." WilliamspersuadedCastroto let him travel he to NorthVietnamin 1964,where swappedHarlemstories withHo Chi Minhand wrote antiwar propaganda aimed In 1965 the Williamsfamily at African American soldiers. relocated to Beijing,
61 Richard Gibson to Williams,March5, 1965,box 1, WilliamsPapers;RussellSackett, a Waron "Plotting June10, 1966,p. 100;Clayborne "The BlackPanther in Encyclopedia Carson, Whitey," oftheAmeriLife, Party," can Left, ed. Buhle,Buhle,and Georgakas, 96; Central Intelligence Agency Report, "Robert Franklin Williams," F. Williams" Aug. 28, 1969,"Robert FBI Subject File;Reginald Major, A Panther Is a BlackCat (New York,1971), theinfluence 63-64. Realizing Williams wieldedand thathe wouldsoonarrive in theUnitedStates, MasaiHewitt and otherPanther leaderscontacted Williamsand askedhim not to attack"whiteracism per se" but insteadto "denounce [MaulanaRon]Karenga and theother Cultural Nationalists as reactionaries and racists." "Onlymiddleclasspeople whocan afford to buyexpensive airtickets'" they suggested, "havebeen able to visityou."Upon his return, the Panthers informed him,he wouldsee that"the enemy is the capitalist system whichuses racism to perpetuate itself"by dividing blackand whiteworkers. Williamsmustnot "dividethe working class.""I don't knowwhatwhite proletariat they havefoundto unitewith," WilliamstoldRobert Cohenskeptically. "Ifthey can produceone, I willbe glad to join themin uniting withit."See Robert CarlCohen to Williams, April13, 1969, box 1,CohenPapers; Williams to Cohen,April26, 1969,ibid. Central Intelligence Agency Report, "Revolutionary ActionMovement'" Aug. 8, 1968, "Robert F Williams"FBI SubjectFile; Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon, 144-49. The CentralIntelligence Agencyclaim is probablyan exaggeration. See CentralIntelligence Agency Report, "Robert Franklin Williams."
States."61
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TheJournal of American History
1998 September
Mao), Chairman F.Williams's (Quotationsfrom book ofthered copy MaoZedong Robert autographs Williams that indicated (CIA) reports Agency Intelligence China,1966.Central Beijing, Mao, with longtalks enjoyed Williams leaders." bytopPeking andfeted was"lionized leaders. ZhouEnlai, andother Chinese
Courtesy ofJohnHerman Williams.
to CIA according whereWilliamswas "lionizedand fetedbytop Pekingleaders," in moved and Zedong Mao dined with The Williamsfamily reports. intelligence LiketheBlackPower years. forthree thehighest oftheChinesegovernment circles in theSouth,he somehisroots from as Williams movement away gotfarther itself, ofa Minority "The Potential his 1967essay, intoapocalyptic fantasies; times drifted enclaves and bringing guerrilla forexample, depictedblacksaboteurs Revolution," ThoughWilliamshad been one of the best downtheUnitedStatesgovernment. from his isolation anylocal constituin the blackfreedom movement, organizers thatplaguedthe and delusions to thesamefrustrations made himvulnerable ency in the last halfof the 1960s.62 restof the movement
62 A. B. Eddyto Mr.Evans, F. Williams"FBI SubjectFile;Williamsto "Harry," memo,May 14, 1962,"Robert of "Recollections c. 1964, ibid.; SidneyRittenberg, n.d., box 1, WilliamsPapers;Williamsto JulianMayfield, interview byCohen,transcript, See alsoWilliams possession). (in Tyson's May4, 1997,typescript Williams," Robert Brother," soldiers, "Listen, American to African broadcasts ofWilliams's version and illustrated p. 312. A printed ofhisconnection stories ofHo Chi Minh's on theveracity I haveno evidence Papers. maybe foundin theWilliams to Williams.Rittenleaderdid tellthosestories Vietnamese but theNorth movement, to Harlemand theGarvey Sept.-Oct. 1967,p. 1. 3; Crusader, Williams," of Robert berg,"Recollections
"BlackPower"and the Rootsof the FreedomStruggle
569
Robert and MabelWilliams, September 2, 1996.Williams completed Baldwin, hismemoirs, Michigan, "While God Lay Sleeping-The Autobiography of Robert a fewdaysbefore F. Williams," this picture was taken.He died a fewweekslater, surrounded byhis family. JohnHermanWilliams,Courtesy ofJohnHermanWilliams. Photo,
In the late 1960s,whenthe Nixonadministration movedtoward openingdiplomaticrelations withChina,Williamsbartered his almostexclusive knowledge of the Chinesegovernment forsafepassagehome and a FordFoundation sponsored post at theCenter forChineseStudiesat theUniversity of Michigan. Not thatthe entirefederal apparatus was happyto welcomehim home: the Internal Security DivisionoftheDepartment ofJustice observed that"Williams could be theperson to filltheroleofnational leaderoftheblackextremists. We shouldoffset attempts by him to assumesuch a position. Williams,however, wroteto a friend that"a lot ofpeople aregoingto be surprised after myarrival not to findme fighting for leadership thewaymany others aredoing. Returning to family tiesand local activ-
570
September 1998
ofhislifein thesmall,troutism,Robert Williams spentthelasttwenty-seven years fishing villageof Baldwinin western Michigan and died on October15, 1996.63 A weekafter hisdeath,RosaParks climbedslowly intoa church pulpitin Monroe, F. Williams, clad in a gray suit NorthCarolina.BeneathherlaythebodyofRobert givento himbyMao Zedongand drapedwitha black,red,and greenPan-African flag.Parkstold the congregation thatshe and thosewho marched withMartin his courage Luther admired Williams"for KingJr.in Alabama had always Robert and hiscommitment to freedom. The work thathe did shouldgo downin history in thatpulpit,nearly Her presence when and neverbe forgotten."64 inexplicable in placed in the traditional narrative of "thecivilrights movement," demonstrates almostpoeticfashion thathistorians shouldreexamine the relationship between "civil Ourvision oftheAfrican American freedom moverights" and "BlackPower." mentbetween1945and 1965as characterized solely and inevitably bynonviolent ofracialpolitics. civilrights thefullcomplexity It idealizesblack protest obscures history, downplays the oppression ofJimCrowsociety, and evenunderstates the achievements ofAfrican American resistance. Worse still, ourcinematic civilrights movement blursthe racialdilemmasthatfollow us into the twenty-first century. The lifeofRobert Williamsunderlines manyaspects of theongoingblackfree- the decisive racialsignificance of WorldWar II, the impactof the dom struggle Cold War on the blackfreedom of questionsof sexuality the centrality struggle, and genderin racialpolitics, and the historical presence of a revolutionary Caribbean. But foremost it testifies WorldWar II to the extent to which,throughout and the postwaryears,there existedamong AfricanAmericansa current of thewillingness to defend homeand community militancy a current thatincluded This facetofAfrican American lifelivedin tensionand in tandemwith byforce. the compelling moralexampleof nonviolent direct action.No doubt thosewho in the mid-1960s feltthatsloganwithan urgency began to chant"BlackPower" circumstances. to theirimmediate But then,as now,manyaspectsof its specific African American Above the meaningendureas legaciesfromearlier struggles. hisdeath,there deskwhere Williams hismemoirs stillhangs completed justbefore - a gift, an ancientrifle he said, from his grandmother.
63 Rittenberg, "Recollections ofRobert Williams," 3. See also Williams, "WhileGod LaySleeping," 237-319. assistant internal to Will R. Wilson,assistant J. Walter Yeagley, attorney general, security division, attorney genF. Williams"FBI Subject eral, Criminal Division,Aug. 8, 1969,Department ofJustice Memorandum, "Robert File. See also Myers, "When ViolenceMet Violence," 73-74; Williamsto Cohen, April26, 1969,box 1, Cohen Papers. 64 Rosa Parks, eulogyforRobert Williams, Nov. 22, 1996,CentralMethodist Church, Monroe, N.C., written B. Tyson notesof Timothy (in Tyson's possession); videotape, WilliamsFamily Collection.

Robert F. Williams, "Black Power," and The Roots of The African American Freedom Struggle - by Timothy B. Tyson

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Robert F. Williams, "Black Power," and The Roots of The African American Freedom Struggle - by Timothy B. Tyson

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Robert F. Williams, "Black Power," and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle Author(s): Timothy B.

F Williams,"BlackPower;' Robert and the Rootsof the African AmericanFreedom Struggle

The Journal of American History

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"Black Power" and theRoots oftheFreedom Struggle

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"BlackPower"and the Rootsof the FreedomStruggle

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