Working Class Calendar

Robert F. Williams (1925 - 1996)

Thu Feb 26, 1925

Image: Photo of Rob and Mabel Williams from the website for the PBS film "Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power." [facingsouth.org]

Robert Franklin Williams, born on this day in 1925, was a civil rights leader known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and advocating for armed self-defense in his book "Negroes With Guns".

Williams succeeded in integrating the local public library and swimming pool in Monroe, and helped gain support for gubernatorial pardons for two young black children who had received lengthy sentences in the "Kissing Case of 1958."

At a time of high racial tension, Williams promoted armed black self-defense in the U.S. Williams obtained a charter from the National Rifle Association and set up a rifle club to defend black people in Monroe from the Ku Klux Klan, once driving them out of his neighborhood with gunfire.

After allowing a white couple to take refuge in their home during a race riot, the local police indicted Williams for kidnapping the couple, forcing him to flee the country and take up residence in Cuba as a guest of Fidel Castro.

While there, Williams ran a radio program called "Radio Free Dixie" with Castro's support, playing contemporary jazz music and advocating for black insurrection against the U.S. government. The program was broadcast over the entire continental U.S.

In 1966, Williams moved to China, where he became a friend and advisor to Mao Zedong. In 1969, he returned to the U.S. and was immediately arrested for fleeing the kidnapping charge, however all charges were dropped.

Williams' book "Negroes with Guns" (1962) details his experience with violent racism and his disagreement with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement. The text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton was among those who cited it as an influence.

"I have asserted the right of Negroes to meet the violence of the Ku Klux Klan by armed self-defense — and have acted on it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western states proves, that where the law is unable, or unwilling, to enforce order, the citizens can, and must act in self-defense against lawless violence."

- Robert F. Williams

• Date: 1925-02-26
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org