Crusader In Exile: Robert F. Williams and the International Struggle for Black Freedom in America by Walter Rucker T HE COMMUNITY of Monroe, North Caroli- na was rocked in the period between 1958 and 1959 by four controversial court women razed two black communities—Rose- wood, Florida and the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma—and murdered or cases. The first, the infamous "Kissing Case," lynched more than 500 African-Americans. brought international attention to this small In the 1930s, the case of the Scottsboro Nine Southern railroad town. In October 1958, would have ended with the legal lynching of two African-American boys were arrested eight of the defendants without the interven- and charged with the attempted rape of a tion of the International Labor Defense wing seven-year old white girl named Sissy Sutton. of the American Communist Party. Between David Simpson, aged seven, and Hanover the 1940s and mid-1950s, scores of African- Thompson, aged nine, were involved in a Americans were lynched in the South includ- playful contest in which Sissy voluntarily ing the much publicized case of fourteen- kissed Hanover. For this offense, both youths year-old Emmett Till. Underscoring this were sentenced to remain in custody at the unrelenting anti-black violence were numer- North Carolina reformatory until they each ous examples of white males raping or sexu- turned twenty-one. The national office of the ally exploiting black women with impunity. National Association for the Advancement of The barbarity of white mobs, the inability or Colored People (NAACP) refused to help unwillingness of white authorities to protect because of its long-standing policy against African-Americans, and the continued direct involvement in so-called sex cases. assault on black women combined in 1959 to Then, on 15 December 1958, the London produce a movement that forever changed News Chronicle ran a front page article about white-black social relations in America. the case featuring pictures of the boys. Soon after, protests began in London, Rome, Paris, Rotterdam, and other European capitals. To avoid further embarrassment in the interna- W ITHIN MONTHS of the Monroe "Kissing Case," three more cases involving inter- racial assault occurred in rapid succession. tional arena. President Dwight Eisenhower In the second case, a white railway engineer pressured the governor of North Carolina for named Brodus Shaw punched Georgia Davis the immediate release of both boys.' White—a black mother of five—and kicked Though the "Kissing Case" ended official- her down a flight of stairs at a local hotel. ly on 13 February 1959 with the release of The Monroe Police Department refused to Simpson and Thompson, this would not be arrest Shaw because there were no witnesses the last time the fear of interracial sexual to the incident. When he was finally arrested assault disrupted social relations in the several weeks later, the presiding judge South. Leading up to the 1960s, decade after refused to indict Shaw and the district attor- decade bore witness to the tragic results of ney dropped the case. To add insult to con- black men charged with assaulting white siderable injury, Mrs. White was arrested and women. In the 1920s, white mobs seeking charged with failing to report her wages for a vengeance for the alleged violation of white six-day period in 1957.^ In the third contro- THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 19 versial case, a mentally disabled black man was have the right to armed self-defense against found guilty of assaulting a local white woman. attack."" Despite this effort, his words sparked On the same day that charges against Shaw a firestorm of debate within the NAACP and were dropped, Monroe native James Mobley in communities throughout the black South. was sentenced to six months on a chain gang The idea of self-defense had long been dis- as punishment for looking at his alleged victim cussed as a strategy and the controversy in a "frightening" manner.^ regarding the use of force as opposed to non- violent tactics dates back to the early days of FOURTH CASE involved Lewis Medlin, a the abolitionist movement. What made A white mechanic who was accused of aggravated assault with intent to rape Mary Williams' stance new was that it went against the grain of popular sentiment in much of Ruth Reed, a twenty-five-year old black black America at the time.' The various woman. Reed, who was eight-months pregnant pronouncements made by Dr. Martin Luther at the time of the assault, successfully man- King, Jr. regarding nonviolence went largely aged to fight off her attacker. Half-nude and unchallenged before 1959, but the rise of both bleeding, she was able to elicit the aid of a Williams and Malcolm X to national promi- white neighbor who immediately called the nence that year fundamentally transformed police. This was only the beginning of the black political action in the US. The con- insults suffered by Reed. Even against numer- tention of this paper is that the emergence ous threats to her safety, she courageously of Robert F. Williams contributed to the went forward with the case against Medlin and marked decline in anti-black racial violence in testified in court. While Reed described the the US, Moreover, his advocacy of armed self- attack during the trial, several members of the defense eventually evolved into a call for out- all-white jury laughed at her testimony. The right revolution. only defense mounted by Medlin's attorney was that he was drunk on the night of the inci- "The Fire Next Time": dent and was only seeking to have some "fun" Armed Self-defense in Black America at the expense of Mrs. Reed. In a typical legal strategy in the segregated South, the defense NTIL MAY AND JULY 1959, whites in the US attorney made an open appeal to the racial consciousness of the jury by bringing Medlin's U had every reason to believe that contin- ued violent attacks on black communities wife to court as "evidence." "Judge, Your across the country would go undeterred. The Honor, and ladies and gentlemen of the jury," phenomenon of lynching had already gone Medlin's attorney added, "you see this man. practically unabated from the Reconstruction This is his wife. This woman, this white woman era through 25 April 1959 with the mob mur- is the pure flower of life.... And do you think der of twenty-three year old Mack Charles this man would have left this pure flower for Parker in Poplarville, Mississippi. Charged with thai?" After less than an hour of deliberation, raping a white woman, Parker, like thousands the jury acquitted Medlin."* of black men accused of similar crimes, was In the aftermath of two separate cases in denied a trial by jury and was forcibly removed which black women were the victims of white from the county jail. His beaten and bullet-rid- male aggression, Robert F. Williams—political den body was found the next month in activist and president of the Monroe chapter Bogalusa, Louisiana. Even though the FBI had of the NAACP—said to a national audience a list of twenty-three participants in this brutal "...the Negro in the South cannot expect jus- lynching, a US grand jury failed to indict any tice in the courts. He must convict his attack- of the alleged murderers. The truth of the mat- ers on the spot. He must meet violence with ter is quite clear; despite claims to the contrary, violence, lynching with lynching."^ Almost the US condoned anti-black violence of this immediately, newspapers circulated his state- sort. White churches, white politicians, the ment across the country. Over, the next few courts, and the federal government did very lit- days, Williams tried to amend and clarify his de to protect African-Americans or to affirm original statement to mean: "Negroes should their right to self-defense.* Page 20 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3  In addition to lynching, African-Ameri- crimes against humanity. Within two months cans were often the victims of random acts of of Robert F. Williams' call for retributive vio- violence in the period before 1959. A wave of lence, American viewers heard the following: beatings and castrations occurred, principal- I charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of ly in the South, during the 1940s and 1950s. the jury, with being the greatest murderer on Close to fifty black churches, homes and earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest rapist on earth....I charge the white man schools were bombed in the South in the with being the greatest robber on earth So period between January 1957 and May 1958.^ therefore ladies and gentlemen of the jury I ask In the midst of these tumultuous times, a you to bring back the verdict of guilty." number of black women were victimized as well. On 1 May 1959, just days before the rul- Though black militancy and calls for self- ings in the Monroe, North Carolina cases defense date back to the colonial and ante- were rendered, a group of students from bellum eras, the convergence of Robert F. Florida A&M University were assaulted by Williams and Malcolm X in the summer of four gun and knife-wielding white assailants. 1959 brought this concept home to twenti- While on a double date, the two black cou- eth-century white America. ples were kidnapped and held at gun point According to Harvard Sitkoff, the dual while the four white men argued over which themes of separatism and violence voiced by woman they would gang rape first. One the NOI caught the attention of whites: woman managed to escape in the interim, Little or nothing most whites read and heard but the other eighteen-year-old student was informed them of Muslim success in rehabilitat- not as fortunate. Not only was she raped ing blacks...or of the Muslim gospel that blacks repeatedly by her assailants, but during the conquer their own shame and poverty by adher- ing to such traditional American virtues as hard trial of the four white men accused of the work, honesty, self-discipline, mutual help, and crime, she was also further tormented by a self-respect.'^ defense attorney who asked whether she enjoyed the encounter.'" The CBS documentary and the resulting media attention placed on Malcolm X T WAS IN THE CONTEXT of the lynching of focused exclusively on white fears of justifi- I Mack Parker, the rape of the Florida A&M co-ed, and the four controversial court able black rage. While it would be overly reductionist to refer to the legitimate anger cases in Monroe, North Carolina that two of black militants as "hatred" or to claim that militant vectors converged. When Robert F. calls for self-defense were simply statements Williams announced, on the steps of the in favor of anti-white violence, there is no Monroe County courthouse, that African- doubt that white America interpreted the Americans must employ retributive violence, words and actions of Robert Williams and he expressed the collective frustration of Malcolm X in that manner.^' When Malcolm generations of people who felt they had no told Louis Lomax that whites were evil, by legal recourse with which to meet racial their very nature, it shook thousands of injustice. Then, in July 1959, Williams was white Americans. These statements, among joined in this call for militant self-defense by others, evoked a real fear in white America Malcolm X and the Nadon of Islam (NOI). that a violent race war was impending with On July 13, the fiery spokesman of the NOI significant casualties on both sides. Thus, the was introduced to the nation in a five-part combined influence of Williams and Mal- TV documentary entitled "The Hate that colm X after 1959 may explain the marked Hate Produced." Airing nationally on CBS, decline of lynching and anti-black riots in this documentary, produced by Mike Wallace the US. and Louis Lomax, gave Malcolm X broad public notice for the first time. The initial s FLDRIDGE CLEAVER later commented, thirty-minute installment began with a rendi- tion of "The Trial," a play created by the A "Robert Williams and Malcolm X stand as two titans, even prophetic figures, who NOI, which places white America on trial for heralded the coming of the gun, the day of THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 21 the gun, and the resort to armed struggle in On 11 June 1943, Williams and his brother Afro-America."''' While black militancy may John were involved in the Detroit Race Riot indeed date back to the colonial era, 1959 and actively battled the white mobs which and the emergence of Williams and Malcolm terrorized black communities and killed X represented a significant re-awakening of dozens of black men and women. Then, in this spirit. What followed in the decade after 1944, he was drafted by the US Army. 1959 were waves of militant black revolution- Though Williams begrudged the experience, aries, dozens of urban rebellions, and he did value the training in handling numerous calls for armed self-defense. After firearms. After serving eighteen months in centuries of anti-black violence, African- the Army, Williams returned home to Mon- Americans across the country began to roe after a seven-year absence. Shortly after defend their communities aggressively— his arrival, a returning black veteran named employing overt force when necessary. This, Bennie Montgomery killed his white employ- in turn, evoked in whites real fears of black er—^W. W. Mangum. Montgomery was tried, vengeance and the possibility of a racial convicted of murder, and executed on 31 apocalypse. March 1947. The local Klan threatened to confiscate Montgomery's body and drag it "Negroes with Guns": through the streets of Monroe. When the Robert F. Williams' Crusade Klan motorcade arrived at the funeral home to take the body, they were met by forty N THE ISSUE of armed resistance, armed black men, including Williams and O Williams once commented that self- defense "is not a love for violence. It is a love several other black veterans, who immediate- ly took aim at the intruders. The Klansmen for justice. We must defend ourselves. We left without Montgomery's body and the must fight back." His armed struggle for jus- black men of Monroe would no longer have tice began when a young Williams led a to hold their heads in shame." This was pre- group of teenagers known as X-32. They cisely the lesson that Williams conveyed to thew rocks at white male motorists intent on others in years to come—collective orga- soliciting prostitutes or assaulting women in nized armed resistance effectively prevents the black section of Monroe, North Caroli- the daily atrocities committed in a white na.'^ Just a few years earlier, an eleven-year- supremacist, Jim Crow South. old Williams witnessed one of the most trau- matizing events of his life. On one Saturday morning in 1936, police officer Jesse Alexan- der Helms, described by his own son—the K EY EVENTS IN THE 1950s helped further coalesce Williams' strategy of armed self-defense. After a brief stint in the Marine late Senator Jesse Helms, Jr.—as a "six-foot, Corp, he once again returned to Monroe to two-hundred-pound gorilla," savagely assault- confront racism. In 1955 Williams joined the ed a black woman. The officer beat the local branch of the Monroe NAACP and defenseless woman and literally dragged her became the chapter president within to the nearby jailhouse, "her flesh was months. He immediately turned to the pool ground away from the friction of the con- hall, the barber shop, and street corners as crete" as Williams later described. Even his recruiting grounds. In his 1962 book, worse than this spectacle was the reaction of Negroes With Guns, Williams states: "We ended black men who witnessed the event. Williams up with a chapter that was unique in the recollected that "[t]he emasculated black whole NAACP because of working-class com- men hung their beads in shame and hurried position and leadership that was not middle- silently from the cruelly bizarre sight.""' This class. Most important, we had a strong repre- feeling of helplessness became a major fac- sentation of returned veterans who were very tor in his personal justification of armed militant and who didn't scare easy."'* These struggle. working-class and lumpen proletariat ele- In the 1940s, two events helped further ments significantly shaped the ideology and evolve Williams' views on armed self-defense. activities of the Monroe NAACP. Page 22 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3  After receiving a charter from the National In 1959, Williams would be thrust even Rifie Association, this sixty-member chapter of further into the national spodight. Again, in the NAACP immediately raised money to buy the wake of four controversial court deci- rifies and ammunition. For Williams, being sions in Monroe, Williams articulated to armed was necessary simply because "city offi- members of the media his manifesto on ret- cials wouldn't stop the Klan, we decided to ributive violence. He made similar state- stop the Klan ourselves. We started this action ments for newspaper, television news, and out of a need for self defense, because law radio interviews in the subsequent weeks. and order had completely vanished; because The uproar which followed these pro- there was no such thing as a 14* Amendment nouncements took Williams by surprise. To to the United States Constitution in Monroe, him "the principle is so obvious": if laws NC" Once the local Klan realized that the would not protect the weak against the Monroe NAACP was arming and actively strong, then "we had to revert to the law of guarding the black community, an armed the jungle; that it had become necessary for motorcade of Klansmen led an assault in 1957 us to create our own deterrent...we would on the home of the chapter's vice president. defend our women and children, our homes Dr. Albert Perry. "We shot it out with the and ourselves with arms."^' Klan," Williams later recalled, "and repelled their attack and the Klan didn't have any more stomach for this type of fight. They stopped raiding our community." Not only B ECAUSE HIS VIEWS Were obviously incon- gruent with the mission of the NAACP, Roy Wilkins suspended Williams. After a did the Klan cease their armed motorcades failed attempt to reverse the ruling on 3 through Monroe's black neighborhoods, but June 1959, Williams turned his attention to the city council, which had long ignored the the creation of a newsletter which would, in appeals of black residents, met in an emer- his words, "inform both Negroes and whites gency session and created a city ordinance of Afro-American liberation struggles taking which prohibited the Klan from having place in the United States and about the par- demonstrations or motorcades without a spe- ticular struggle we were constantly fighting cial permit from the police chief.'^ in Monroe." Thus the first edition of the Crusader v/zs born, issued on 26 June 1959.^^ T HE LESSON learned by Williams and mem- bers of the Monroe NAACP was clear: armed self-defense not only facilitates self- Williams, then, became the Southern coun- terpart to Malcolm X and both men, during the summer of 1959, would be in the nadon- preservation, but can also become a vehicle al spotlight as advocates of self-defense and for social change. The real threat of race war retributive violence. While Malcolm used forced the hand of the Monroe city council charismatic speeches to spread his word, to take unprecedented action in this case. Williams resorted to editorials in the Crusad- Though the story was not picked up by the er and eventually to radio broadcasts to edu- national media, it did place Williams in the cate black communities across the country spotlight as one of the leading militants of about the principles of self-defense and the his time and simultaneously focused more possibility of a revolution against the ruling government scrutiny on his activities. By regime in the US. 1958, Williams was gaining powerful allies. Williams had been under EBI surveillance He first met Malcolm X that year, who was so and scrudny since age sixteen and, with the impressed with the North Carolina militant, publication of the Crusader and the media that he raised money and helped purchase attention he garnered, it was not long before weapons for the Monroe NAACP. He also FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover took definitive invited Williams several times to speak at the action. Ironically, at the very same time the Nation of Islam's Temple No. 7 in Harlem, Charlotte office of the FBI refused to protect where Malcolm presided as minister. This SNCC Freedom Riders in Monroe from was just the beginning of a long-standing white mob violence, they were involved in a bond between the two ^" conspiracy to silence Williams. In fact, the THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 23 arrival of SNCC organizers in August 1961 oppression, and, if necessary, revolution provided the EBI with very the opportunity it against the US government. This effort was needed to rid Monroe of Williams and his paralleled in his monthly newsletter, the Cru- sader-in-Exile, which made the claim on the When the Freedom Riders descended on first page of every edition that it "enjoy [ed] a Monroe during late summer 1961, the town freedom of the press that the racists of the was again on the brink of race war. Armed USA could never bring themselves to toler- white mobs and the local police beat, ate." In addition, Williams' 1962 publication harassed, and jailed scores of protesters. of Negroes With Guns sent ideological shock- Williams and the Monroe NAACP did what waves throughout black America. Scores of they could to protect the Freedom Riders aspiring Black Power advocates read it and and quell the violence. In the midst of these this powerful work joined the writings and clashes, a white couple rode through an speeches of Frantz Fanon, Mao Tse-tung, embattled black neighborhood in Monroe. and Malcolm X as canonical texts for black Close to 300 community residents, many hav- revolutionaries. ing heard that SNCC acdvists in downtown Monroe were being beaten or even killed, threatened to assault the white couple. The Williams' family allegedly harbored the cou- W ILLIAMS ANTICIPATED the urban rebel- lions between 1964 and 1968 as well as the rise of the BPP and other militant orga- ple, and for this act of compassion, Robert nizations. Indeed, these phenomena may Williams was charged with kidnapping. have been a by-product of his activism Armed with a converted P-38 sub-machine abroad. The particular ideological and politi- gun, Williams and his family successfully cal issues addressed by the Black Panthers, eluded an FBI dragnet, fieeing first to New their insistence on armed self-defense, their York City, then to Canada and finally to views on Cuba and Vietnam, their support Communist for an international struggle against racism, capitalism, and imperialism, and even the The Crusader-in-Exile: escape routes certain Panther leaders used Internationalizing the Struggle to avoid COINTELPRO persecution mir- rored those of Robert Williams years earlier. In the remainder of this essay, I contend that S ERVING AS EITHER TEMPORARY HAVEN Or p e r - manent home for persecuted black activists, including Assata Shakur and Huey Williams' activism abroad was one of the mechanisms giving momentum to the rise of P. Newton, post-revolutionary Cuba remains militant black movements and the call for a symbol in the international effort to not only armed self-defense as a means of achieve the goals of Black Power advocates. self-preservation, but armed struggle as a As a December 27, 1969 edidon of The Blacii means to bring about fundamental and even Panther noted, "members of the Black Pan- revolutionary social change. ther Party (BPP) used Cuba as the means of His escape to Cuba was not Williams' first escape from fascist suppression in Babylon experience in the Caribbean nation. and they are alive, well and free today."^^ Between 1960 and 1961, he visited Cuba a Ironically, scores of black activists experi- total of three times, to the dismay of tbe enced significantly more "freedom" while NAACP. In Williams' assessment, it was ulti- exiled in the communist country than they mately his "experiences in Monroe and with would ever enjoy at home. Within this para- the NAACP which had resulted in launching doxical space, Williams established a base of the Crusader were also sharpening [his] operations from wbich he continued the awareness of the struggles of Negroes in fight for black civil and human rigbts in every part of the world, how they were treat- America. His weekly broadcasts on "Radio ed, their victories and their defeats." Explor- Free Dixie" allowed Williams to articulate an ing the role of Afro-Cubans in Cuba, unadulterated message supporting armed Williams concluded that a real effort to self-reliance, continued struggle against establish complete racial equality had Page 24 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 occurred as a result of the revolution. He tion of the Cuban experiment. He quite witnessed "a real drive to bring social justice cogently stated that, "My cause is the same as to all Cubans, including the black ones," and the Asians against the imperialist. It is the same Williams' efforts in exposing these facts in as the African against the white savage. It is the the Crusader were heavily criticized by the same as Cuba against the white supremacist NAACP national office.^^ In direct response imperialist. When I become a part of the main- to his editorials in support of communist stream of American life, based on universal jus- Cuba, the NAACP made clear their position tice, then and then only can I see a possible in an acerbic letter to Williams: mutual cause for unity against outside interfer- I wonder, however, whether you are fully aware of ence. "^^ the dangers and disadvantages of the course of For Williams, therefore, asylum in Cuba was action you seem to favor. I have followed closely the most logical and practical decision. He the events in Cuba in recent months and in par- ticular. Dr. Castro's visit to the United Nations later claimed "I could think of no other place this fall. Regardless of the merits of the Cuban in the Western Hemisphere than Cuba where a cause I was greatly disturbed by the frequent Negro would be treated as a human being; show of insincerity which, I believe should give where the race problem would be understood; you food for thought before you find yourself as and where people would not look upon me as another pawn in the present unfortunate feud between Cuba and our country.... Does not the a criminal." This was where he envisioned start- unfortunate example of the great American ing a "new militant movement designed for the Negro singer Paul Robeson show you the dangers total liberation of the African-American."'" and mistakes of the road which you seem to be Cuba Wcis the only space in the Western Hemi- choosing? What has Paul Robeson with all his sphere that allowed Williams to deliver an greatness done for the American Negro in his present struggle for equality: The answer, regret- unfettered and unadulterated message of revo- table as it is, must be: Nothing.^' lutionary social change in America. In his radio broadcasts and newspaper editorials, The message coveyed by this letter was quite Williams' intent was crystal clear. obvious: "supporting communism will do Tim Tyson, however, in his biography of more to hurt 'you' than to help 'us.'" Williams, Radio Free Dixie: Robert E Williams and Williams brisded at this "advice" and replied the Roots of Black Power, claims that Williams was in a typical forceful manner: ambivalent about the notion of revolutionary As for my being "used as a pawn in the struggle change in America. After his return to the US of Cuba" against imperialist and racist North in 1969, Williams seemingly toned down his America, I prefer to be on the side of right than criticism of the federal government. In a 1970 on the side of Jim Crow and oppression. I prefer to be used as an instrument to convey the interview, for example, he stated "I had always truth...rather than to be used as an Uncle Tom considered myself an American patriot.... I whitewasher of black oppression and injustice always stressed that I believed in the Constitu- and an apologist for America's hypocrisy.^* tion of the United States and that I thought it was the greatest document in the world. "'^ This W ILLIAMS' VISITS TO CuBA a n d his 1960 meeting with Fidel Castro in Harlem forged the first links between militant black statement and the apparent change in his rhetoric regarding the US have to be placed in the proper context. While Williams may have activists and Cuban revolutionaries. As Cuba believed in the Constitution and particularly spiraled further away from the orbit of the US, the Fourteenth Amendment, he stated that a it became even more attractive to a number of fundamental change in the US government radical organizations. Cuba alone stood against was necessary. Ultimately, the difference the combined might of the most powerful mili- between a patriot and a revolutionary is much tary in the world; Castro successfully repulsed smaller than Tyson believes. an invasion, avoided several assassination attempts, and effectively became the unmov- able object to the unstoppable force of US domination in the Western Hemisphere. W ILLIAMS' INTENT was to initiate a revolu- tion and, after a successful overthrow of the US government, he wanted to start Williams was far from deluded in his admira- anew with a system which would institute the THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 25 true principles of the Declaration of Inde- credence to anti-US Soviet propaganda. By pendence, the Constitution, the Bill of internationalizing the struggle in the midst Rights, and both the Fourteenth and Fif- of the Cold War, Williams sought to generate teenth Amendments. Also, what Tyson does global pressure as a means to the end of not state—and perhaps does not under- effecting internal changes in the US The stand—is that Williams fully knew the limits result of the infamous "Kissing Case" in Mon- of free speech in America. "Freedom in the roe, in which President Eisenhower com- United States is a farce. Yes, a common street pelled the Governor of North Carolina to dog has more rights...than a black Ameri- release two African-American boys charged can," Williams poignantly notes.^^ The limits with sexual assault, demonstrated to on "freedom" in America explain his perse- Williams and scores of others the lengths the cution at the hands of the FBI, the relendess federal government would take to avoid this destruction of the Black Panther Party and sort of embarrassment in the global commu- other militant organizations by COINTEL- nity. Simply put, the presence of racism and PRO, and the murders of Dr. King and segregadon were obstacles to a successful US Medgar Evers. If anything, Williams was foreign policy and Williams' attempts to politically savvy; he fully understood that in expose the vile nature of race relations in America, as opposed to Cuba and China, he America could force the federal government could not fully speak his mind without to take the demands of civil rights organiza- potentially deadly repercussions. tions more seriously. This, however, was only The paradox of America could only be the beginning, as Williams was to become safely critiqued and combated in a paradoxi- further radicalized while in exile. cal space. Communist Cuba was the perfect platform for Williams and, over time, he URING HIS EXILE IN CuBA, Williams' con- used this space to transform the movement for black liberation in America into an inter- D cept of armed self-reliance began to evolve into a call for revolution to bring nationalized struggle. Using Cuba as his base about more fundamental changes in Ameri- of operations, Williams had the opportunity ca. He further noted, in Negroes With Guns, to speak to a world audience about the par- "Social change in something as fundamental ticular problems faced by black communities as racist oppression involves violence and in America. In Negroes With Guns, he states: upheaval, because it's struggle for survival Our one hope...is that the United States will be for one and struggle for liberation for the civilized enough and responsive enough to be other.... The principle of self-defense is an mindful that the whole world is disgusted with its American tradidon that began at Lexington treatment of the Afro-American.... we will mobi- and Concord. "'"* This statement from this lize opinion on a larger scale. When the racists forced me into exile they unwittingly led me onto 1962 book was an unambiguous declaration a greater field of battle.'' of war against American racism. For the next seven years, Williams continued to make The international arena had been successfully calls for revolution and violence to change utilized in earlier black struggles. In the nine- the social conditions in America. Despite this teenth century, Frederick Douglass took the consistent pattern, Tyson describes an essay abolitionist cause to England; this type of by Williams entitled "The Potential of a international effort would be followed in the Minority Revoludon" as frustrated and delu- early twentieth century by Ida B. Wells' anti- sional. It was, in Tyson's view, an "apocalyptic lynching campaign in London and W. E. B. fantasy" entertained by Williams and was a Du Bois's Pan African Conference in Paris. product of his distance and removal from The Cold War, however, provided a new the ongoing civil rights struggle in the US. dimension in the struggle for black liberation. Tyson's Robert F. Williams was a self-pro- With the hearts and minds of Africans, claimed patriot who chided and criticized Asians, and Latin Americans at stake, efforts other black militants who were just out to by Williams and others to expose American "scare the ofays and play a cowboy game." racial hypocrisy to the world uldmately gave This interpretation is incongruent with the Page 26 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 messages delivered by Williams in environ- Muslim blood flows, it is black blood!" He ments that fully allowed him the freedom to objected to the CPUSA's demand that he dis- speak his mind about solutions to the Ameri- tance himself from the Black Muslims, noting can race problem.'^ "pious whites should abolish racism among The first edition of the Crusader-in-Exile, their own people before they can consider issued in April 1962, includes a political car- themselves qualified to ascertain what consti- toon depicting a benevolent Fidel Castro— tutes racism among Negroes...." These state- dove in hand—protecdng the Williams fami- ments in support of black nationalism upset ly from a triumvirate of a Klansman, an FBI his benefactors in the Cuban government and agent, and a noose-wielding Robert precipitated Williams' departure from the Kennedy. The caption reads "Cuba: Territo- island in 1965.^^ rio Libre de America—Cuba Land Free of America." There, Williams told his reading "Radio Free Dixie" audience that, "the people of Latin America, Asia, and Africa are engaging the same enemy in the liberation struggle." Not only could international pressure help humanize P ERHAPS THE MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL a v a i l a b l e for Williams' crusade was radio. Castro allowed Williams to join the staff of Radio Pro- American domestic policy, but linking the gresso in July 1962, granting him access to a black struggle in America to the movements 50,000-watt radio station with enough power to of colonial peoples around the world was a reach Saskatchewan, Canada. Airing three days means of further empowering freedom fight- a week, listeners heard "Radio Free Dixie" ers back home. The axiom, "there is strength broadcasts in Monroe, Harlem, and Detroit. in numbers," was a self-evident truth to Williams, however, wanted access to the short- Williams and his efforts to link international wave broadcast available at Radio Havana in struggles against white supremacy and Euro- order to reach listeners on the US West Coast, pean imperialism were mirrored later by Africa, and Latin America. This request was Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, and the Black Pan- repeatedly denied by the Cuban government ther Party.'^ The first edition of the Crusader- and became one of many factors that prompt- in-Exile offers a clear assessment of the use of ed Williams and his family to leave for China in force in the struggle against oppression: 1965. For those who could not hear the show [f]orce and violence can no longer be monopo- live, taped recordings of Williams' message lized by the self righteous white oppressor whose were distributed throughout the US with copies longevity it enhances by cringing, docile and iso- appearing as far away as Los Angeles, Califor- lated blacks.... Our objective is to unite the Afro- nia. Both Berkeley's KPFA and New York City's American struggle with the struggle of oppressed peoples everywhere." WBAI aired broadcasts of "Radio Free Dixie" on a weekly basis. Also, between September 1962 and September 1964, Williams printed a T HE JUNE-JULY, 1962 ISSUE of the Crusader- in-Exile newsletter notes that a coalition of African-Americans, Africans, Asians, and total of nine "Radio Free Dixie" broadcasts in editions of the Crusader-in-Exile. All this ensured Latin Americans could "help bring a new that his radio show had a large and geographi- order of social justice to the world." This effort cally widespread audience.'^ to build coalitions in the non-white world and His first full broadcast on 27 July 1962, his support of black nationalists organizations accompanied a detailed account of the forced Williams to cross paths—and swords— Cuban struggle for independence and with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Williams concluded that "[t]he spirit of the Hoping he would condemn the racial dema- 26* of July is no longer just a spirit for Cuba goguery of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muham- or the Cuban people....it is a spirit for all of mad, and Malcolm X, leaders of the CPUSA Latin America, for Africa, for Asia, yes, and expressed disappointment over two separate for the down troddened and oppressed peo- editorials appearing in the May and July- ple in the USA whose lives are valued less August 1963 editions of the Crusader-in-Exile. than common street dogs." The next month, Williams, however, pointed out that "[w]hen Williams reminded his listeners that "free- THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 27 dom and human dignity are not won just by saged his later arguments against African- hope and prayer. Cod helps those who help American involvement in the Vietnam War: themselves! If we must pray... Let us praise Black Americans who have always been dehu- the lord and pass the ammunition. Let our manized in racist America cannot afford to battle cry be heard around the world... Lib- become a part of the deceit and brutality of the cold blooded, conquest-crazed US government. erty! Liberty or death!" These words became We cannot afford to allow ourselves to be forced an anthem—of sorts—for Williams' crusade to apologize for its crimes against non-Ofay and he closed the majority of his speeches humanity. If our people try to intercede for him and radio broadcasts with them."*" in colored countries, then we too become the object of the contempt and scorn building up throughout the world for racist, imperialist D URING A 17 JANUARY 1963 broadcast, Williams quotes both Abraham Lin- coln and Patrick Henry, using statements America.'*'' Two weeks later, in a broadcast ominously that justify revolution.'" In his 8 March 1963 titled "Zero Hour Approaches," Williams broadcast, Williams offers a short history of told his listening audience that the world the freedom struggle in the US. He notes sympathized with the black liberation strug- that, despite a Civil War and Constitudonal gle. In this regard, he said in unambiguous Amendments to the contrary, Africans-Amer- language that, "[i]t is time for all our people icans continued to suffer "the world's most to take to the streets in defense of human barbaric form of racial oppression...." How- rights and human dignity. Worthy social ever, "force" and "shock" were the principal change, means drastic change. Drastic remedies to racism in the US, according to change means revolution. Revolution means Williams. Clearly, at some point between violence and upheaval.'"*^ 1962 and 1963, Williams began to evolve his notion of self-defense into a call for violent and aggressive revolution. "Justice and F OR CLOSE TO FOUR YEARS, Williams was able to spread his message to listeners through- out North America. Interspersed with Jazz and Democracy are not born in the peace and Blues recordings, Williams' weekly broadcasts serenity of a viciously oppressive status-quo," emphasized four interconnected themes: con- he noted in this radio message, "but in the tinued anti-black violence and violation of firestorm of battle and upheaval.'"*^ Williams Consdtutional rights in the US; armed self- voiced a similar message during his next defense as a viable tactic; links between the broadcast on March 22, stating that as long African-American liberation movement and as the Kennedy Administration continued to freedom struggles around the world; and revo- follow the path of Adolf Hitler, "[e]very lution as a means to bring about effective social Afroamerican who possibly can had better change. When Williams warned in a March obtain a firearm and some ammunition to 1963 broadcast that "soon the streets of the protect his home and to defend himself and USA will become rivers of blood" he was not his family.'"" far off the mark. The next year, there was a By 1964, Williams raised the ante by draw- massive wave of black urban rebellions in cities like Harlem and Detroit. In August 1965, one ing direct links between the black liberation of the worse urban riots in US history occurred movement in America to the contestation of in Watts, California. There is no reason to European Imperial might around the world. doubt that Williams was partly responsible for Specifically, in the 14 February 1964 broad- this surge in black militancy and rebellion. cast of "Radio Free Dixie," Williams provided a lengthy discussion of Kwame Nkrumah and From Rebel to Revolutionary: Chana. In an attempt to show solidarity with The Transformation of Robert F. Williams the embattled leader, Williams informed his listening audience about an alleged CIA attempt to assassinate Nkrumah. Noting that African-Americans had been implicated in I N A MAY-JUNE 1964 Crusader-in-Exile essay, entided "USA: The Potential of a Minori- ty Revoludon," Williams lays out a definitive this effort, Williams gave a warning that pre- plan for an anti-government coup. Though Page 28 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 described as an apocalyptic fantasy by his cussion of the revolution. He argues that the principal biographer, Tim Tyson, this essay first stage of a successful revolt would be for represents the logical intellectual progres- African-American communities to organize sion of a self-described freedom fighter and around the concept of self-defense, similar disillusioned patriot into a full-blown revolu- to what he accomplished in Monroe, North tionary. Accompanying the essay is a clever Carolina. From this base the principle of self- illustration of an African-American, towering defense will develop, almost naturally, into over an unnamed city, setting fire to build- full-blown revolt. "Our people must prepare ings with Liberty's torch.""^ Perhaps by coinci- to wage an urban guerilla warfare of self- dence, the next three months witnessed defense," contends Williams, adding, "[s]elf- urban riots in Harlem and Rochester, New defense develops to the stage wherein the York; Jersey City, Patterson, and Elizabeth, source of evil and terror must be eliminat- New Jersey; Dixmoor, Illinois; and Philadel- ed." While the Monroe militants were phia, Pennsylvania. This wave of urban rebel- primed to move on to this next stage, lions was the first of the so-called "Long Hot Williams points out a key tactical failure Summer Riots" which convulsed the US which undermined this "natural" progres- again in 1965 and 1967.'*' While Williams did sion in his hometown. The armed activists in not necessarily orchestrate this unprecedent- Monroe lacked massive organization, central ed wave of violence, as the CIA would later coordination, and links to other armed mili- claim, his essay proves that he keenly under- tant groups in the US. Thus, when the forces stood the collective psyche of embattled and of repression sought to undermine their frustrated African-American communities movement, Williams notes that "[t]he town across the country. would have been destroyed but our defense The essay begins with an analysis of Cand- forces would have been crushed by external hian nonviolence and its ineffectiveness in power, and the state and white supremacists both India and in the US context. Williams would have used the example to intimidate points out that Nehru, a disciple of Candhi, other advocates of self-defense.'"*^ resorted to the force of arms in his efforts to Once African-American communities settle border disputes with Pakistan and gained the sort of central organizing neces- China. Despite this clear historical transition sary for a successful self-defense initiative, from a pracdcal doctrine of peace to one of the stockpiling and crafting of weapons was self-defense in the case of India, Williams to be the next stage. Williams argued that "a notes that "Afroamericans are still being poor man's arsenal," consisting of gasoline drugged with the opium of the power of love fire bombs (Molotov cocktails), lye or acid and nonviolence." After further exposing the bombs could be easily crafted and deployed hypocrisies in US foreign and domestic poli- in making "the streets imppossible [sic] for cy, Williams lays out a careful analysis of start- racist cops to patrol." More destructive ing a minority revolution in America. weapons, such as grenades, rocket launchers, Against the naysayers who repeatedly said mortars, and machine guns, would be secret- that such an enterprise would amount to sui- ly purchased from army personnel looking cide, Williams asks: to make some extra money. In addition to Are they any wiser than those cynics who brazenly stockpiling weapons, Williams suggested an stated that "man will neverfly,"that "it is impossi- extensive and systematic program of industri- ble to cross the oceans," that "man can never al sabotage and guerilla warfare: reach the speed of a mile a minute and survive," and that "the American Revolution can never Gas tanks on public vehicles can be choked up succeed against the military might of the with sand. Sugar is also highly effective in gaso- Crown?""* line lines. Long nails driven throught [sic] boards and tacks with large heads are effective to slow the movement of traffic on congested roads at R EMINISCENT OF THE PLAN s u g g e s t e d by Ceorge Jackson in Blood in My Eye, Williams, again in the May-June 1964 Crusad- night....Derailing of trains causes panic. Explo- sive booby traps on police telephone boxes can be employed. High powered sniper rifles are er-in-Exile, moves through a step-by-step dis- readily available. Armor piercing bullets will pen- THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 29  etrate oil storage tanks from a distance. Phospho- er, fails to state that Williams had never been rus matches (kitchen matches) placed in air con- psychoanalyzed nor diagnosed as a paranoid ditioning systems will cause delayed explosions which will destroy expensive buildings. schizophrenic.^* While avoiding an assessment of his sanity, Concentrated attacks on the nation's infra- Harold Cruse does question whether or not structure would create widespread chaos and Williams should be classified as a true revolu- panic. With the spread of such violence and tionary. Taking full aim at the American terror, Williams predicted that an internal Marxists, who he claims are "incurable clash between white and black G.I.'s at mili- romantics," Cruse concludes that they "tried tary bases around the world would signal the to make a revolutionary out of Robert collapse of the armed forces. In addition, Williams, who was not a revolutionary but a nighttime guerilla raids, sporadic riots, and rebel." That is, Williams did not suggest fun- concerted sniper attacks were to be the main damental changes in the structural arrange- elements of "organized fighting and unlimit- ments in American society. Cruse contends ed terror against the oppressor and his that he may have be brash and bold in his forces." Such a campaign would, according call for armed self-reliance, but ultimately to Williams, "bring and end to oppression Williams was very much in line with Dr. King, and social injustice in the USA in less than Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young. Further- 90 days....'"^'' more, he claims that Williams' movement lacked substance and clear objectives. Alas, Williams closed his analysis by noting, Williams was nothing more than an "[t]his year, 1964 is going to be a violent one, "NAACPer" with the storm will reach hurricane proportions by 1965 and the eye of the hurricane will hover over American by 1966."^' While his prediction of a guerilla war was not com- C RUSE CONTINUES THIS ANALYSIS i n The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, adding that, "self- defense as Williams projected it, is not revo- pletely accurate, waves of urban riots and the lutionary, even with arms. It is exactly what it rise of militant organizations such as the says it is—defensive—at best, a holding Black Panthers in those years proved that action." Even given Williams' inflammatory Williams, again, was not far from the truth. radio broadcasts, speeches, writings, and his "fantastic" plan for a minority revolution. T^'HOUGH WILLIAMS clearly defined himself as Cruse contends that "[i]t is the ends X a revolutionary, others were not as con- Williams seeks that completely defeat the vinced about his transformation. While Tim notion that his methods are, in truth, revolu- Tyson describes Williams' revolutionary tionary." As long as Williams failed to grasp impulses as delusional, Phillip Abbott Luce— the meaning of social revolution and as long former member of the Communist Progres- as he continued to think in terms of race war sive Labor Movement—describes Williams as a instead of class revolt, his goals would ulti- paranoid lunatic. Luce claims in Road to Revo- mately be "flawed" and "limited," according lution that, "Robert Williams has the dubious to Cruse.^'^ distinction of being the first black revolution- By this narrow definition, only a move- ary to propose violence and bloody uprising in ment with a Marxist philosophical orienta- this country. It was not, however, until I met tion qualifies as truly revolutionary. Williams, him, that I realized how psychotic he is." He however, had been ever critical of Marxists goes on to state that Williams was a diagnosed and others who seemingly lacked an under- schizophrenic who had an absolute hatred of standing of the unique role that race played all whites.^^ This assessment of Williams' psy- in the oppression of African-Americans. He chological state comes largely from the notes, "[t]he enslavement and suppression 250,000 wanted notices created and circulated of Negroes in the American South were by Monroe Police Chief A. A. Monroe, the going on before Karl Marx was born, and FBI, and the US Justice Department after he Negroes have been rebelling against their took flight. Luce's polemical account, howev- oppression before Marxism came into exis- Page 30 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3  ."^^ Were Gabriel Prosser, Charles more, Newton credits the writings of Williams Deslondes, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Denmark and Malcolm X—along with the influential Vesey, and Nat Turner revolutionaries? Cruse actions of the Louisiana-based Deacons for would answer "no" to this query, contending Defense and Justice and the Lowndes County that race war is not the same as a social revo- Freedom Organization—for creating a foun- lution.^' However, such "limited" aims as dation upon which the Black Panther Party overturning centuries of racial hierarchy and built.''° In a 13 September 1969 letter to the using violent methods in order to replace Republic of New Africa and its President-in- the existing rule regime are revolutionary— Exile, Robert F. Williams, Newton noted "the by any measure. people need you very much. And now that the consciousness of the people is at such a high Conclusions and Legacies level, perhaps they will be able to appreciate your leadership, and also be ready to move in a very revolutionary fashion. "^^ W ILLIAMS HAD A DEFINITE AND MEASURABLE effect on particular black militant lead- ers and organizations. Unfortunately, his During a 1970 interview, Eldridge Cleaver said that the three most instrumental men in legacy has recently been mired in ambiguity his life were Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and by detractors and even sympathetic scholars. Robert F. Williams. Williams' infiuence on Perhaps the only effective way of understand- Cleaver began during 1965 while Cleaver was ing Williams' importance is to assess how he in Folsom Prison in California. In the months was viewed by militant leaders and their prior to September 1965, he repeatedly organizations. Only then can Williams be attempted to get a copy of Williams' Negroes properly placed among the pantheon of With Guns to no avail. He finally received a African-American activists, leaders, and free- copy after requesting it from the state library. dom fighters. In this regard, Malcolm X— "I devoured it and let a few friends read it," immediately after his break with the Nation Cleaver would later state. However, the book's of Islam—gave due credit to Williams in a popularity alarmed prison authorities to the phone-in radio show hosted by Joe Rainey in degree that it was placed on a list of banned Philadelphia. In response to a question literature.^^ Writing in 1968, Cleaver pro- posed by a listener, Malcolm stated, "Robert claimed that Williams "has made as much Williams was just a couple of years ahead of impact as Malcolm, because [he] hurled a his time; but he laid a good groundwork, challenge at both white mother country and and he will be given credit in history for the the black colony: let the issue be setded by war, stand that he took prematurely." While let the black colony take up arms against the admitting that Williams had made some mis- mother country!" With this bold challenge to takes in Monroe, Malcolm also contends that the US, Cleaver contends that "black urban he was on the right track and may have guerillas" heeded Williams' call and were achieved more success if he could have primed to liberate black communities across expanded his movement beyond Monroe, the country.®^ North Carolina.^** Williams' book, Negroes With Guns, became an important inspiration for Huey P. New- ton—co-founder of the Black Panther Party. R OBERT F. WILLIAMS was pivotal in the Black Power movement as a symbol of both self-defense and an internationalized In Revolutionary Suicide, Newton claimed, struggle against white oppression. He was an "Negroes With Guns by Robert Williams had a important inspiration for a twenty-five year great influence on the kind of party we old Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) who greatly developed." Though he disagreed with admired Williams' bold and courageous Williams' faith in the US Constitudon, New- stand against the KKK in Monroe.^^ As ton definitely admired the fact that "Williams Kwame Ture claimed in 1996, "In the North had been active in Monroe, North Carolina, there was much talk [about self-defense] and with a program of self-defense that had little action. This is what separated Williams enlisted many in the community."^® Further- in the early years. He provided action." In THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 31 his 2003 autobiography. Ready for Revolution, ly factors explaining the near disappearance Ture further assesses Williams' legacy, of the waves of anti-black lynching and race adding "this brother would become a great riots that characterized the post-Reconstruc- inspiration and a lesson to us in SNCC, as tion South. Nothing of the massive lynching well as a symbolic and ideological leader to a waves of the 1890s and the 1920s nor the number of radical groups across the spec- extensive race riots of 1919 or 1943 would trum of the black struggle." ever be seen again in the US. For better or Members of SNCC had witnessed first- worse, the direction of racial violence had hand Williams' audacity in 1961.^^ When the largely reversed—outside of individual and Freedom Riders came to Monroe, they were sporadic incidents—and the voices of attacked by white ruffians during a picket in Williams and Malcolm X contributed in part what SNCC organizer James Forman later to this phenomenon. described as "a moment of death.'"''' Accord- ing to Bill Mahoney, one of the Freedom Riders present during this assault: I just knew we were dead. Man, we were com- I N THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA, W i l l i a m s SUC- cessfully created a platform from which to articulate the concerns of African-Ameri- pletely surrounded by angry white folk. People can communities. Shortly before his Cuban started jumping out of the crowd to take a swing at us....The threats got louder. 1 was clear that it exile in 1961, Williams successfully seized was only a matter of time before they would upon any opportunities to discuss the plight swarm us. I had been watching this old toothless of African-Americans to the world. In a par- man in overalls getting hysterical....He kept ticularly crafty move, Williams addressed a screaming, "Kill all the niggas, Goddamn, kill letter to the Cuban representative to the 'em. Go on, kill the niggahs." Then 1 saw the old man's face suddenly change. He started pointing UN—Ambassador Raul Roa—during the over my head. "Gawddammit," he cried. 'Them debate over the Bay of Pigs invasion. Before niggahs got guns. Them goddamn niggahs got the full body of the UN, Ambassador Roa guns. '*' rose and read the following message: Mr. Ambassador: Williams' and his group arrived en masse, Please convey the following appeal to Mr. Adlai brandishing M3 carbines and other firearms, Stevenson: Now that the United States has pro- in order to escort the Freedom Riders to claimed military support for people willing to safety. This was the first of many actions rebel against oppression, oppressed Negroes in engaged in by Williams which, according to the [American] South urgently request tanks, Ture, "invest[ed] his name with the patina of artillery, bombs, money, and the use of American airfields and white mercenaries to crush the legend" among black militants and revolu- racist tyrants who have betrayed the American tionaries.^* Revolution and the Civil War. We request the world's prayers for this noble B ECAUSE OF THIS LEGACY and his signal con- tributions to black liberation, Williams was elected as Chairman-in-Exile of the both undertaking. Robert Williams, President, NAACP Union Gounty, Monroe, North Carolina'" the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM)—a group inspired by his call for In later years Malcolm X, Eldridge armed self-defense—and the Republic of Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, Kwame Ture, and New Africa (RNA), while the Black Panther others would also use the UN as a forum in Party sought to make him their Foreign Min- which African-Americans could raise legiti- ister. These groups chose Williams because mate concerns about civil and human rights they saw him, with his call for "freedom or in the US. In Negroes With Guns, Williams fur- death," as a revolutionary.^' Along with Mal- ther states "[w]e must display the type of colm X, Robert F. Williams profoundly courage that will embarrass this nation shaped black militancy in the period after before the world. All this time we will further 1959. His public statements in favor of identify our struggle for liberation with the armed self-defense and the actions of the struggle of our brothers in Africa, and the Monroe Chapter of the NAACP were certain- struggle of the oppressed of Asia and Latin Page 32 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 America."" These are not the words of a delu- 12. Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954- sional patriot; indeed, they are the sentiments 1980 {New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 153. of a dedicated revolutionary. 13. James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Dial Press, 1963), 58. Ever since the Kissing Case, Williams was keenly aware of the power of internadonal 14. Robert Scheer, ed., Fldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison Writ- ings & Speeches (New York: Ramparts Magazine, Inc., pressure in forcing needed social change in 1969), 71. the US. By 1961, he also became aware of the 15. Robert Williams Tribute Committee, A Legacy of potential of an international revolution Resistance, (Detroit: Robert Williams Tribute Com- against the twin evils of imperialism and white mittee: 1996), 2, 7. supremacy and actively forged links with sym- 16. Tim Tyson, "Robert F. Williams, 'Black Power,' and pathetic foreign governments. As Ture notes the Roots of the African American Freedom Strug- in his tribute to Williams' legacy, "Brother gle," yourna/ of American History 85 (September Williams must be thanked...for international- 1998), 540. izing our struggle and giving it concrete ties 17. Tyson, 'The Roots of the African American Freedom with revolutionary governments and organiza- Movement," 548; A legacy of Resistance, 30. tions."'^ Thus, in the pages of the Crusader-in- 18. Tyson, 'The Roots of the African American Freedom Exile and in his broadcasts on "Radio Free Movement," 550; Williams, Negroes With Guns, 12-17. Dixie," Williams not only pointed out the con- 19. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 55-57; Marcellus Barks- dale, "Robert F. Williams and the Indigenous Civil tradictions in US foreign and domestic policy, Rights Movement in Monroe, North Carolina, 1961," he also—in a clear and sober voice—support- Journal of Negro History 69 (Spring 1984), 73-74; Nel- ed both domestic and international revolu- son, Right to Revolution, 84-85. tion. The new freedom of speech he enjoyed 20. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 145, 205. wbile in exile gave Williams full license to 21. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 26; Tyson "The Roots of articulate, in unadulterated fashion, his radi- the African American Freedom Movement," 556. cal solutions to both American racism and 22. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 28-30; Barksdale, European global domination. "Indigenous Civil Rights Movement," 75. 23. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 35-37, 45, 52; Cohen, Endnotes Black Crusader, 170-184; Robert Cohen Interview of 1. Robert F. Williams, Negroes With Guns (Detroit: Wayne . Robert F. Williams, Havana, Cuba, 1962, Bentley His- State University, 1998 [1962]), 21-24; Tim Tyson, torical Ubrary, University of Michigan (hereafter, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of BHL, UM). Black Pozver (Chapel Hill: University of North Caroli- 24. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 48-53, 63-64; Tyson, na Press, 1999), 91-94; Robert Carl Cohen, Black 'The Roots of the African American Freedom Move- Crusader: A Biography of Robert Franklin Williams ment," 564; Barksdale, "Indigenous Civil Rights (Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1972), 111-121; Tru- Movement," 76, 84-87; Nelson, Right to Revolution, 93- man Nelson, The Right to Revolution (Boston: Beacon 94; Cohen, Black Grusader, 182-199. Press, 1968), 79. 25. Philip Foner, ed.. Black Panthers Speak (Philadelphia: 2. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 145-146; Williams, Negroes With Lippincott Press, 1971), 113. Guns, 24. 26. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 31-35. 3. Cohen, Black Crusader, 122. 27. Ibid., 32. 4. Ibid., 122-125; Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 147-148; Williams, Negroes With Guns, 24-27. 28. Ibid., 33. 5. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 26. 29. Ibid., 34-35. 6. Ibid.; Nelson, The Right to Revolution, 88; New York 30. Ibid., 64. Times, May 8, 1959; June 9, 1959. 31. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 303-304. 7. Harold Cruse, The Grisis of the Negro Intellectual (New 32. Muhammad Spealis, November 8, 1963. York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1967), 352. 33. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 70. 8.Thomas F. Parker, ed.. Violence in the US, 1956-1967, Vol. 1 (New York: Facts on File, Inc.; 1974), 11. 34. Ibid., 72. 9. Ibid., 6-10. 35. Tyson, 'The Roots of the African American Freedom 10. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 143-144; Washington Post, May Movement," 568; Tyson, Radio Free Dixie, 14. 3, 1959. 36. Grusader-in-Exile, AprW, 1962, (BHL, UM). 11. WNTA-TV, Transcript for 'The Hate That Hate Pro- 37. Ibid. duced," airing on July 13, 1959, 6:30 to 7 p.m. 38. Grusader-in-Exile,June-]u]Y, 1962, (BHL, UM). THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3 Page 33 39. Letter from Robert Williams to Fidel Castro, August 57. Cruse, Grisis of the Negro Intellectual, 385. His state- 28, 1966, (BHL, UM); Crusader-in-Exile, October- ment speciflcally contends, "...many of [Williams'] November, 1962, (BHL, UM); Grusader-in-Exile, Sep- spiritual followers among the young warrior types in tember, 1962, (BHL, UM); Phillip Abbot Luce, Road the ghetto make absolutely no distinction between to Revolution: Communist Guerilla Warfare in the USA race war and revolution. But in reality, a race war is (San Diego: Viewpoint Books, 1967), 76; Tyson, possible in the United States without its being a revolu- 'The Roots of the African American Freedom Move- tion." ment," 564-565. Tyson makes the erroneous claim 58. David Callen, ed., Malcolm X as They Knew Him (New that Williams used Radio Havana for his "Radio Free York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1992), 164-165. Dixie" broadcasts. However, in a letter of complaint 59. Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New York: Williams sent to Fidel Castro, he specifically claims: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1973), 112. After much bickering and red tape I was finally allowed to proceed with the broadcast from Radio Progresso, 60. Ibid., 113. however, the facilities of Radio Havana, which was to be 61. Toni Morrison, ed.. To Die for the People: The Writings the sbort wave broadcast in tbe name of Radio Free of Huey P. Newton (New York: Writers and Readers Dixie, were completely denied. I was told that this was Publishing, Inc., 1999), 96. because Radio Havana is the official voice of the Cuban 62. Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice (New York: Dell Publish- Government and that tbe Cuban Government could not be identified in tbis way witb the Afro-American strug- ing, 1991), 56. gle. I was never allowed the use of tbe shortwave facili- 63. Scheer, ed., Eldridge Gteaver, 71. ties which would have enabled me to reach tbe great 64. Komozi Woodward, A Nation within a Nation: Amiri masses of our people Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Black Power Politics (Chapel 40. Crusader-in-Exile, September, 1962, (BHL, UM); Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 52. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 27 July, 1962, 65. Stokely Carmichael, Ready for Revolution: The Life and (BHL, UM). Struggle of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) (New York: 41. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 17 January, Scribner, 2003), 225. Muhammad Ahmed (Max Stan- 1963, (BHL, UM). ford)—current leader of RAM—credits Williams 42. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 8 March, 1963, with inspiring the formation of the Deacons for (BHL,UM). Defense, the Black Power phase in SNCC, the Black Panthers, and the League of Revolutionary Black 43. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 22 March, 1963, Workers in the period between 1965 to 1966. See A (BHL, UM). Legacy of Resistance, 8-9 44. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 14 February, 1964, (BHL, UM). 66. Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNGG and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge: Harvard Univer- 45. "Radio Free Dixie," radio broadcast, 28 February, sity Press, 1981), 43; Barksdale, "Indigenous Civil 1964, (BHL, UM). Rights Movement," 76-77. 46. Grusader-in-Exile, May-June, 1964, (BHL, UM). 67. Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, 225-226; Barksdale, 47. Parker, ed.. Violence in the US, 75-86. "Indigenous Civil Rights Movement," 77. 48. Grusader-in-Exile, May-June, 1964, (BHL, UM). 68. Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, 226, 235; Nelson, Williams further elaborates this plan in 1965 and Right to Revolution, 91-92. again in 1967 after he accepted the position of 69. A Legacy of Resistance, 10. "Chairman-in-Exile" of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). It eventually became part of 70. Quoted in Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, 227; RAM's widely circulated manifesto. See Luce, Road to Williams, Negroes With Guns, 70. Revolution, 27-29; Tyson, "The Roots of the African 71. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 70-71. American Freedom Movement," 568; Nelson, Right 72. A Legacy of Resistance, 10. to Revolution, 75-76, 98; Grusader-in-Exile, August, 1965, (BHL, UM). 49. Grusader-in-Exile, May-June, 1964, (BHL, UM). 50. Ibid.\ Luce, Fioad to Revolution, 27-28. 51. Grusader-in-Exile, May-June, 1964, (BHL, UM). 52. Luce, Road to Revolution, 72-73. 53. Robert Cohen, Interview of Robert F. Williams, Havana, Cuba, 1962, (BHL, UM). 54. Harold Cruse, Rebellion or Revolution? (New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1968), 73, 80, 101. 55. Cruse, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, 351-361, 365, 368- 369, 375-399. 56. Williams, Negroes With Guns, 80. Page 34 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 36, NO. 2-3