Robert F. Williams is considered by many to be the architect behind the modern Black Power movement. He was a highly influential figure for leaders of the Black Panthers and similar groups. Williams famously wrote a 1962 manifesto that called for Black people to arm and defend themselves against racist white oppressors.
Williams was born on February 26, 1925 in Monroe, N.C. The grandson of a former slave, Williams witnessed rampant racism in his hometown and also in the North during the Great Migration. After traveling to Detroit for work, Williams was drafted into the Marines and served one year before returning to Monroe. Williams met and married Mabel Robinson, who shared his passion for social justice.
The racial climate in Monroe was beginning to change for the worse just as Williams became the president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Unlike other members of the typically peace-loving organization, Williams believed that guns would level the playing field between Blacks and the growing number of heavily armed Ku Klux Klan members. Another of Williams’ notable actions was defending two Black Monroe boys at the center of the so-called “Kissing Case” after a white girl kissed one of them.
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In a controversial partnership that has aroused contentious debates, Williams reportedly filed for a local chapter of the National Rifle Association in 1957 allegedly known as the “Black Armed Guard.” There have been reports that Williams and the Guard fearlessly battled the KKK in Monroe and drove them out-of-town with their armed resistance.
In 1961, a harrowing event took place that led to Williams and his wife fleeing the country. The Freedom Riders came to Monroe in a bid to prove that non-violent protests were more effective than armed self-defense. After the groups of Riders were beaten, they reportedly asked Williams for protection. During this fracas, Williams also sheltered a white family but was accused of kidnapping.
With the FBI in pursuit, Williams fled to Cuba with his wife but still remained an active and aggressive voice in civil rights. In 1962, using the Radio Free Dixie network, Williams urged Black soldiers during the Cuban Missile Crisis to spark an insurrection. It was also during this time that Williams wrote the manifesto, “Negroes With Guns,” which was said to have influenced Huey P. Newton of the Panthers.
In 1965, Williams and his wife resided in China and worked alongside the government there. He and his wife returned to the states in 1969 where he still faced the kidnapping charges, but they were eventually dropped in 1975.
Williams was given a Ford Foundation grant and worked at the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies. He was at work on an autobiography when he died in 1996.
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