Robert F. Williams, Tremendo Luchador, 1925 - 1996

Robert F. Williams died October 15th, 1996. His funeral was attended by Rosa Parks and many others. He was among the most important and influential figures in the tradition of African American armed self defense. An ex-Marine and leader of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina, he was expelled by the NAACP for his views in 1959. He led a fight by African Americans in the late 50s and early 60s to defend themselves, with guns when necessary, from Ku Klux Klan violence. He organized a succesful ambush of the KKK as they came up from South Carolina to kill blacks in North Carolina. He wrote a book about these experiences, Negroes with Guns. The work, which has been reprinted by Wayne State University Press, was originally published in 1962 by Marzani & Munsell of New York.

Robert Williams also championed the Cuban Revolution. He saved lives in a 1959 race riot and took on the defense of two youths (aged 7 and 9) accused of "assaulting and molesting a white female." Williams was then falsely accused of kidnapping charges and fled into exile in Cuba and China from 1961 to 1969.

In Cuba, he ran Radio Free Dixie (now the title of a book covering this period), which broadcast across the Southern US until he experienced some difficulties with the Soviets in Cuba as well as the American Communist Party. However, he had good ties with Che Guevara and some of the Cuban revolutionaries and even explained to a very interested Che the machinations of the American CP and how they tended to marginalize the African American community. After the Birmingham bombing with the loss of the 4 girls, he wrote to many world leaders. Only Mao answered him and invited him to China. He elected to go in 1965. In China, he was at the seat of power, at Mao's side during many historic events.

Negroes With Guns: Robert F. Williams on Self-Defense

He spoke at length with Ho Chi Minh who described how Marcus Garvey had radicalized him in New York, where he worked as a busboy. He also described how the Vietnamese had dealt with Black US servicemen they had captured: they put them in separate camps and taught them African and Black American history. Many of these refused to go back to the US and are unknowingly celebrated by the black POW flag flown in front of many post offices and elsewhere. Except those POWs stayed voluntarily. Ho also thanked Williams for the inspiration Black people had given him for the famous Vietnamese tunnels that he said were based on the underground railway in the west, through Tennessee and Kentucky, which went through a series of caves whose existence had been passed down from Indigenous people.

In 1969 Mao made Williams' return to the US as a free man a condition for the resumption of US China relations. Williams returned to the U.S. and remained active in the Peoples Association for Human Rights and in New Afrika as he wrote his autobiography, While God Lay Sleeping: The Autobiography of Robert F. Williams. He was the first president of the Republic of New Afrika. His perspective was unique, broadened by his extensive experiences abroad.

Williams was framed by the US intelligence services through an article in the New York Times which sought to portray him as being against the Cuban Revolution. To this day a segment of the Cuban government looks upon him with suspicion but they should know that to his death he wanted to return to Cuba and visit his old comrades, of this we have personal knowledge. -- Andy Petit

Negroes with Guns

First published in 1962, Negroes with Guns is the story of a southern black community's struggle to arm itself in self-defense against the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Frustrated and angered by violence condoned or abetted by the local authorities against blacks, the small community of Monroe, North Carolina, brought the issue of armed self-defense to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Under the leadership of Robert F. Williams (1925-1996), Monroe became the test case of the right of blacks to armed self-defense when law and order broke down. The single most important intellectual influence on Huey P. Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party, Negroes with Guns is a classic story of a man who risked his life for democracy and freedom.

Some reviews:

"Simply perfect and simply impossible. And that's just the title of this newly reissued little book, a work possibly more important now than when first published." - Metro Times

"History will record the courage, commitment, devotion, sincerity and love of Robert Williams for his people." - Minister Louis Farrakhan

"...Mr. Williams made outstanding contributions to the just cause of the American Black people and mutual understanding between Chinese and American peoples. His dedication to the building the bridge of friendship...won high respect from Chinese leaders and Chinese people. He will live forever in the memory of Chinese people." - Qi Huaiyuan, President, Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Beijing

Click to get pricing & order ==>

Negroes With Guns is an excellent book

Reviewer: lijohnunited@earthlink.net from Michigan USA May 30, 1999

This is a very significant historical account of an often overlooked segment of the civil rights movement in the late '50s and early 60's. The book also holds great significance for scholars, looking at contemporary social and political issues facing today's continuing struggle for social, human and political rights in the world community.

Old Pledge for the reprint Williams' book, Negroes with Guns:
[NOTE: THIS IS NO LONGER NEEDED, it is maintained for historical purposes]

Robert F. Williams Tribute Committee
Negroes With Guns
Reprint Pledge

The Robert F. Williams Tribute Committee goal is the reprinting of Brother Rob's Negroes With Guns Book. We need your help to make this goal a success. When you pledge or give $15.00, you will receive a copy of Negroes With Guns, once it is reprinted. We will take more if you so desire. Please make checks payable to:

Robert Williams Tribute Committee.

Send pledges and donations to:

Robert William's Tribute Committee
P.O. Box 32004
Detroit, Michigan 48232-0004

[NOTE: THIS IS NO LONGER NEEDED, is maintained for historical purposes]

Thank you for your help and understanding.
The Robert F. Williams Tribute committee

Pledge:

Date:______________ Pledge Amount:________

Name:___________________________________

Address:_________________________________

_______________________________________

Phone:(area codes)______________________fax_________

email:_______________________________

Some postings at the time of Williams' death

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 21, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

ROBERT WILLIAMS 1925-1995:

"A COUPLE OF YEARS AHEAD OF HIS TIME"--MALCOLM X

By Stephen Millies

"In thirty minutes you'll be hanging in the courthouse square." So spoke A. A. Mauney, the Monroe, N.C., police chief, to Robert F. Williams on Aug. 27, 1961. Williams--the president of the local NAACP chapter--wasn't lynched that day. He was hounded into exile by the FBI.

Robert F. Williams died Oct. 15 in Grand Rapids, Mich., at age 71. His story is a remarkable chapter in the history of Black liberation. Monroe, N.C.--Williams' birthplace-- was in 1925 like hundreds of other Southern communities. Black people lived under lynch law. "Whites Only" signs littered the town, including its library and swimming pool.

The local white aristocracy--including the Helms family--ran the town. Old Man Helms was sheriff of Union County, whose seat is Monroe. His son Jesse became the Ku Klux Klan senator from North Carolina. Helms and the other local racist ruling families kept Monroe "safe" for Duke Power and the tobacco companies that really ran North Carolina. And for the Southern Railroad--now the Norfolk Southern--controlled by the J.P. Morgan banking house in New York.

Keeping Monroe "safe" meant keeping Black people down and keeping unions out. North Carolina still ranks lowest among the states in the percentage of unionized workers.

ARMED SELF-DEFENSE

In 1955 the NAACP chapter in Monroe had dwindled down to six members. Williams, who had worked as a machinist in New Jersey and did a hitch in the Marines, took over its leadership. He started a membership drive among workers and the unemployed.

On too many Saturday nights, KKKers would drive through the Black community, shooting it up. Many of these Klansmen came from South Carolina, whose border was only 14 miles away.

When North Carolina Gov. Luther Hodges did nothing to stop the attacks, Williams and the local NAACP chapter formed a National Rifle Association chapter and trained its members in using firearms.

In the summer of 1957 a Klan motorcade attacked the home of NAACP member Dr. Albert E. Perry. An armed defense squad drove them off. Klan night riding came to a sudden stop in Monroe. This famous incident--which electrified so many Black people--was completely suppressed in the big-business media. Only Black publications such as Jet Magazine, the Afro-American and the Norfolk Journal and Guide reported the event.

In October 1958, two Black boys aged 7 and 9 were arrested for rape in Monroe after a 7-year-old white girl kissed one of them on the cheek. These two children--who could have been given the death penalty--were sentenced to 14 years in the reformatory. Only after Williams fought on and protests occurred throughout Europe did the state release the two.

`THE CRUSADER'

The national NAACP suspended Williams for six months, but the Monroe NAACP chapter became famous for its militancy and for advocating self-defense against racist attacks. To spread his views, Williams started a newspaper called the Crusader.

North Carolina authorities were determined to get rid of Williams. They offered him bribes. When that didn't work, they tried to kill him. On June 23, 1961, Bynum Griffin, the owner of a local car dealership, tried to run Williams off the road. On Aug. 27, 1961, a full-scale assault was launched upon Monroe's Black community. The racists assaulted and jailed "Freedom Riders" -- demonstrators who had come from the North to overturn segregation.

During this assault the Stegalls, a white couple known for their Klan sympathies, drove through the Black community. Only Williams' personal intervention prevented any violence against them. Yet this action then became the basis of a phony kidnapping charge that was used to hound Williams out of the country. This charge was also used to jail one of Williams' closest supporters, Mae Mallory.

Williams escaped the FBI dragnet and went to Cuba, where with the assistance of the Cuban revolutionary government he started the anti-racist "Radio Free Dixie." Later, Williams would live in China, where he urged Mao Zedong to issue his famous message of support to African Americans.

Deirdre Griswold, now editor of Workers World newspaper, went to Monroe in 1961 with the Monroe Defense Committee to assist the struggle there. Youth Against War and Fascism, Workers World Party's youth arm, distributed 10,000 copies of Mao's statement to the August 1963 freedom march.

WWP also printed and distributed Williams' "Listen Brother," an impassioned appeal to Black GI's not to shoot their Vietnamese brothers and sisters.

Huey P. Newton--the founder of the Black Panther Party--wrote how Williams' book "Negroes With Guns" influenced him. Malcolm X had this to say: "Robert Williams was just a couple years ahead of his time."

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)

_______________________________
This piece omits an important period in Williams' life centering on New Afrika/NAIM/RNA. Does anyone have any information about this that they could summarize to complete this picture?

Also missing is a good description of the period in his life when he was in Cuba running Radio Free Dixie.
_______________________________

"Since no one else mentioned his deep involvement in the NAIM, i felt it was my duty as a New Afrikan to do so, that's all. i love New Afrika too much, to let People call our *New Afrikan* freedom fighters American, even if they put the African in front- dig? That just pushed my self-determination button- smile....

He was, among other things, a New Afrikan. Yes, he was a freedom fighter, but the point i was making was that he spent a great deal of life and love working for New Afrika and that must be acknowledged by all truly self-determining People(s)."

_______________________________
"I knew him well, and was in the church just hours before the shootout took place with the RNA and the Pigs here in Detroit.."
_______________________________

Documentary on Robert F. Williams

Educator, media artist and media consultant, Aukram Burton, along with the Williams family, is currently producing a documentary about Robert F. Williams. Aukram started documenting Robert Williams in the mid 1970's and has a collection of photographs and video footage, some of which are represented on the Rober F. William Cyber Memorial website at: http://www.ramimages.com/rfwilliams

Any interested in this project should contact:

Aukram Burton
RamImages
P.O. Box 17225
Louisville, KY 40217
(502)810-0234
email: aukram@ramimages.com

********************************

Articles/Artículos

The Hidden History of Black Nationalist Women's Political Activism  2/3/2018 Truth Out: "Contrary to popular conceptions, women were also instrumental to the spread and articulation of black nationalism -- the political view that people of African descent constitute a separate group on the basis of their distinct culture, shared history and experiences.

African Americans, National Liberation and the Vietnamese Revolution, Reject the Pentagon War Machine  2/2/2018 Global Research: "Robert F. Williams had been the president of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina when he advocated and practiced armed self-defense against the Ku Klux Klan. Williams’ refusal to categorically accept the nonviolent approach to civil rights later resulted in his expulsion from the NAACP in 1961. Eventually he was forced to leave North Carolina amid an attempt to frame him on false kidnapping charges of a white couple. After being transported out of North Carolina by supporters, Williams eventually settled in Cuba and later the People’s Republic of China. He spent time as well in North Vietnam addressing radio broadcasts to African American GIs, exposing the racist and imperialist character of the war."

The hidden history of black nationalist women’s political activism  1/30/2018 The Conversation: "As I demonstrate in my new book, “Set the World on Fire,” black nationalist movements would have all but disappeared were it not for women. What’s more, these women laid the groundwork for the generation of black activists who came of age during the civil rights-black power era. In the 1960s, many black activists – including Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Williams, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael – drew on these women’s ideas and political strategies."

Ho Chi Minh's Connection to the African American Struggle  3/2/2017 teleSUR: "Vietnam's revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, was immensely influenced by the struggles of African Americans. During his time in Harlem, he wrote a book called "The Black Race," detailing the horrors suffered by the African-America communities."

To the Memory of Malcolm X: Fifty Years After His Assassination  2/21/2017 Black Agenda Report: "Malcolm X was prominent among a large layer of Black intellectuals and activists including W.E.B. DuBois, LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), Robert F. Williams, William Worthy and many others who welcomed and defended the Cuban Revolution, which was coming under increasing US attack."

Little Known Black History Fact: Ho Chi Minh’s Black Connection  6/14/2016 Black America Web: Robert Williams had a dialog with Ho Chi Minh that included this topic - "During the time Ho was in Harlem, he was said to have attended several meetings and lectures by the UNIA leader and pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey. Garvey’s words may have influenced him. In 1924, Ho published a pamphlet titled “The Black Race” (translated from French) which detailed the conditions and horrors African-Americans faced under the false democracy of America."

On Lynching And The Ku Klux Klan (Ho Chi Minh, 1924)  6/7/2013 Resistance Philly: "These crimes were all motivated by economic jealousy. Either the Negroes in the area were more prosperous than the Whites, or the Black workers would not let themselves be exploited thoroughly. In all cases, the principle culprits were never troubled, for the simple reason that they were always incited, encouraged, spurred on, then protected by politicians, financiers, and authorities, and above all, by the reactionary press…."

Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power  5/1/2009 Organization of American Historians: published 10/06

Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power  8/6/2006 PBS

Outspoken and Feared but Largely Forgotten  2/7/2006 NYT: "The small town of Monroe, ancestral home of Jesse Helms, the former Republican senator known for his opposition to civil rights leaders and legislation, had Klan rallies in the 50's that drew as many as 15,000 people to the region. Mr. Williams founded his armed group, the Black Guard, after seeing Klan members make a black woman dance at gunpoint "like a puppet," he says in an audiotape, heard over the film's scene of sad-faced blacks working at a Monroe poultry factory."

Negroes with Guns: Robert Williams and Black Power  2/7/2006 Independent Lens: "NEGROES WITH GUNS: Rob Williams and Black Power tells the dramatic story of the often-forgotten civil rights leader who urged African Americans to arm themselves against violent racists. In doing so, Williams not only challenged the Klan-dominated establishment of his hometown of Monroe, North Carolina, he alienated the mainstream Civil Rights Movement, which advocated peaceful resistance. For Williams and other African Americans who had witnessed countless acts of brutality against their communities, armed self-defense was a practical matter of survival, particularly in the violent, racist heart of the Deep South. As the leader of the Monroe chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Williams led protests against the illegal segregation of Monroe’s public swimming pool. He also drew international attention to the harsh realities of life in the Jim Crow South. All the while, Williams and other protestors met the constant threat of violence and death with their guns close at hand."

Miss Parks and Robert Williams - Rosa's Wreath  11/15/2005 CounterPunch: "Nine years before her own passing, Rosa found her way to the small community of Monroe, North Carolina to speak at the hometown funeral of a man who unlike Rosa was often vilified by the civil rights movement as a dangerous radical who threatened to jeopardize the meager gains of the civil rights movement. She told the mourners of a close friend of Malcolm X that the work of a fiery defender of the world's oppressed should go down in history and never be forgotten. But Robert Franklin Williams attained international status in the late 1950's after being forced to flee from North Carolina after forming a black self-defense group that was a precursor of the Black Panther Party. He life is an apt reflection of the saying that a prophet is without honor in his own country… But why did he remain such a precious man to Rosa Parks? She was always personified as docile, far in temperament from Williams' calling for armed guerrilla warfare in the cities of America. Although it is just conjecture, is it straining very much to wonder if Rosa Parks harbored some resentment at her own exile from the South after starting the Montgomery bus boycott?"

Miss Parks and Robert Williams  11/15/2005 University of Texas: "Nine years before her own passing, Rosa found her way to the small community of Monroe, North Carolina to speak at the hometown funeral of a man who unlike Rosa was often vilified by the civil rights movement as a dangerous radical who threatened to jeopardize the meager gains of the civil rights movement. She told the mourners of a close friend of Malcolm X that the work of a fiery defender of the world's oppressed should go down in history and never be forgotten."

Military courage, love to save our people  9/8/2005 Final Call: On Sept. 3, New Black Panthers from Houston and Dallas under the direction of National Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, along with Houston Chairperson Krystal Muhammad and Dallas Chairperson Robert Williams, left the Houston Astrodome headed for New Orleans in two Black-owned chartered buses… Lynelle Washington, who gave her story directly to The Final Call afer she was rescued by them: “I have been here through it all. I never left my house in Gretna, La. It’s right across the bridge from New Orleans. I got completely flooded out. I have been trapped here the entire time. The cops came by on Saturday and they saw that I was alive. They gave me two bottles of water and kept going. I was scared to go out of my house. The boy down the street went into the Walgreen's across the street to get him something to eat and they (police) beat him. They thought he was the one who broke in, but he wasn’t, it was already broken into. I saw him, he went in after it was already broken into. “They keep changing up their stories. First, they got on the loudspeakers telling people to go into the places and get them something to eat, then when the people go in, they beat them. They beat up the boy and left him on the street. I went out after the police left and gave the boy one of the bottles of water they gave me. Thank God for these Brothers that came to get me.”"

Black Liberation leader Robert Williams remembered - New audio documentary  5/28/2005 Worker's World: "The government’s phony charges for an alleged kidnapping, but really for their militancy, forced the couple into exile in Cuba. There they became de-facto representatives of the oppressed and working class people in the United States. She said that everywhere they went—Cuba, China, Vietnam and African countries—Williams told her that he did not want to represent the “ugly America” but be a good ambassador “for our people and for the whole human race.” The Williams’ son, John C. Williams, told the audience what it was like to be raised by his activist parents. Forced into exile in Cuba, the Williams family saw firsthand what a socialist government can do for its citizens and guests."

Growing up Revolutionary: An interview with John Williams, son of Mabel and Robert F. Williams  5/25/2005 SF Bay View: ""The last demonstration before we had to go into exile was over a swimming pool, over Black folks having the right - a taxpayer's right - to a public swimming pool. To see all these (Cuban) kids having such great fun, yelling and playing, just enjoying themselves, was a great contrast. In a lot of ways that was a simple, though it was my first encounter in Cuba, it was symbolic of what was to come in terms of race relations and being able to go to school in Cuba, not having to have those same kinds of fears and worries we had in (Monroe), people coming by our home with weapons threatening to kill my father. It was a welcome change, to say the least. "To be able to leave the country and live in a place that was no longer a hostile environment probably helped me tremendously," John concluded. Soon after a protest against Monroe, North Carolina, city officials, the Williams family had to flee the country. The four headed for Cuba, where the boys attended boarding school. Three years later they were sent to China, where they spent five years. John and Robert Jr. finished high school there before returning to the United States with their family."

Robert F. Williams and armed self-determination  2/2/2005 SF Bay View

Helms defends Lott remarks  12/11/2002 AP: from the son of the sheriff who went after Robert F. Williams.

Links/Enlaces

Robert Franklin Williams: A Warrior For Freedom, 1925-1996, By Timothy B. Tyson: "When President Richard Nixon's administration launched secret contacts with China in the late 1960s, Williams bartered his knowledge of the Chinese government for safe passage home and a Ford Foundation grant to work at the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. He played a significant role in the historic opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and China."

Little Known Black History Fact: Ho Chi Minh’s Black Connection, Black America Web, 6/14/16: Robert Williams had a dialog with Ho Chi Minh that included this topic - "During the time Ho was in Harlem, he was said to have attended several meetings and lectures by the UNIA leader and pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey. Garvey’s words may have influenced him. In 1924, Ho published a pamphlet titled “The Black Race” (translated from French) which detailed the conditions and horrors African-Americans faced under the false democracy of America."

Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power (2004) from the Internet Movie Database

Deacons for Defense (2003) from the Internet Movie Database

Sahir, Wanda. Growing up Revolutionary: An interview with John Williams, son of Mabel and Robert F. Williams. San Francisco Bay View: National Black Newspaper. 5/18/2005.

Robert F Williams: Self Respect Self Defense and Self Determination; An Audio Documentary as told by Mabel Williams. Audio CD and 84 page booklet, produced by Freedom Archives.

Robert Williams’ appeal to Adlai Stevenson

BlackAcademics radio interview with Mabel Williams about Robert F. Williams life

Series of six video interviews with Robert F. Williams