As "Le Fils" examines disparities and atrocities in America's concentration camps for blacks (Jails and Prisons), it's good to also showcase the leaders in the Black community who have fought for justice and basic human rights, without which, there can be no meaningful confrontation of injustice.
Robert F. Williams unwavering dedication to the protection of the defenseless and his perpetual demand of for his rights as a human were the two points of reference from which his legacy was born.
The case of Mack Ingram serves as a prime example of the type of injustice, racism and oppression that Blacks faced in Monroe, North Carolina, and the former Confederate States.
on June 4, 1951 an African American Sharecropper named Mack Ingram was arrested for an assault on William Jean Boswell, white, female, aged 18 with intent to criminally assault her. Boswell claimed that Ingram was looking at her in a leering manner as she walked to a tobacco field. In Boswell's own testimony she stated that Ingram did not lay hands on her and never had been closer then seventy-five feet. Jailed without bond, Ingram, who had nine children, was sentenced to two years at hard labor for the reduced charge of assault on a female The U.S. state department attempted to paint international uproar over the incident as a communist propaganda and issued the following statement, "The reds are playing up the fact that the Negro never actually touched the girl." In the venacular of anti-Black rights activist, anyone attmepting to garner basic human freedoms for Blacks was a Communist. Such was the indelible mark of racial hatred upon so-called, "Democracy" and the operation of the U.S. Government.
Robert F. Williams was given his grandfather's rifle when he was a young boy. At eleven, he witnessed the ruthless beating to the ground of a black woman by Jesse Helms, Sr. the father of the future red-necked Senator. When Williams defended two young black boys who were jailed after being accused of being kissed by a white girl during a kids game (the kissing case), his one-man worldwide publicity machine shamed the officials into releasing the boys. Williams also lead a protest the segregated, tax supported Monroe swimming pool where his group was shot at, threatened and several attempts were made on his life. KKK leader Catfish Cole stated, "A Nigger who wants to go to a white swimming pool is not looking for a bath, he is looking for a funeral."
Williams also organized the black-armed guard with the national rifle association's blessing in order to protect the black community from the Ku Klux Klan. Under Williams leadership blacks used high powered rifles and weapons and built sandbagged fortified defense positions and drilled on proper and safe firearm use resulting in the successfully defense of their community from Ku Klux Klans night rides. Contrary to media portrayal, Williams did not believe in violence, but rather, armed self-reliance in the face of white terrorism.
Following Williams successful efforts at recruiting lower class, and working class blacks to the local NAACP, a practice which disregarding the NAACPs unwritten rule about recruiting only educated and integration minded blacks, he became the focus of an NAACP campaign to effectively destroy his power base. The effort against Williams was lead by NAACP leader Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall. The NAACP saw Williams as uncontrollable and saw his removal from power power as a tool to reinforce their position of anti-violence and an essential step in furthering their complicity in garnering white acceptance as a non-threat to the power structure. They vigorously recruited and supplemented daisy bates monthly income by $600 a month in exchange for her condemnation of Williams. Despite this Williams maintained his local and national supporters with the help of his friends in Harlem such as John Henrik Clarke, John Oliver Killens, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Shirley Graham Du Bois and Malcolm X who raised money to assist Williams in the purchase of guns, ammunition and supplies for his local newsletter, "The Crusader".
Williams Battle with the NAACP eventually lead to his censure at a national convention due to his public statement that he would, "meet violence with violence." however he maintained his grass-roots support as exemplified by his reception at an NAACP sponsored rally in Harlem on May 17, 1961. At the rally, Roy Wilkins, Daisy Bates and Clarence Mitchell were unable to speak and eventually shouted off a stage on 7th avenue when the crowd noticed Robert F. Williams standing silently nearby. They began shouting, "We want Williams! We want Williams!" When several renditions of the star spangled banner did not quell the disturbance, the NAACP sent a representative to request that Williams take the rostrum. Williams mounted the rostrum and said, "I advocated Afro-American men should defend their women and children! I am tired of being oppressed and I am going to meet violence with violence! It is better to live just thirty seconds walking upright in human dignity than to live a thousand years crawling at the feet of our oppressors!" Williams was then mobbed by the crowd and carried off the stage. The NAACP leaders attempted to speak and were once again shouted down by the crowd.
Williams became an international figure through the help of the J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in 1961. Williams was at home in Monroe when a white couple became lost in a black neighborhood in the midst of one of the largest race riots in the citys history. Williams allowed the white couple to stay in his home and protected them from a crowd intent on spilling their blood until the crowd subsided. The FBI used this opportunity to charge Williams with kidnapping and placed him on the 10 most wanted list and stated that he was armed, dangerous and suffered from chronic schizophrenia. Thus began Williams 10 year seclusion from the United States . from 1961-1970 Williams and family first stayed in Cuba with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara as a guest where he broadcast radio free Dixie with a signal that reached from Key West to Seattle Washington. He also continued to produce his newsletter,"The Crusader" and wrote his classic, "Negroes with Guns" which influenced an entire generation of leaders, including Huey P. Newton, Malcolm X and The Deacons for Defense. From there Williams traveled to China as a guest of Mao Zedong and then to Vietnam as an honored guest of Ho Chi Minh who credited Williams with providing key strategy elements thorugh his newsletter which lead to the Tet offensive. Eventually Williams tired and returned to the United States by way of Africa when a deal was worked out with the State Department who at this time, was looking to begin relations with China. Williams had valuable information on how to proceed with relations due to his close relationship with Mao Zedong, Zhou "Joe" Enlai and others.
Robert F. Williams legacy is as the most logical precursor to the Black Panthers and a stark contrast to the efforts of mostly highly educated northern blacks who ran the NAACP who preached non-violence to southern, uneducated and harshly discriminated blacks who faced daily struggles and terrorist violence on a daily basis.
Robert F. Williams is honored by Le Fils de Fanon for his fearlessness his stewardship of the black community, his leadership and his defiance of the unjust policies and actions of the local, state and federal government. His international reputation as a freedom fighter influenced indigenous and proletariat/oppressed population revolutions in Cuba, Viet-Nam and China.
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