Robert Franklin Williams Read online

  They handled it up to the State Supreme Court, but then they

  dropped my case from appeal without telling me and with

  only a few days left in which to file an appeal. I discovered

  this through the newspapers because my case had been consolidated with that of seven students from Chapel Hill, N.C.

  The newspapers listed the names of the defendants whose

  NAACP lawyers had filed appeals and I was the only one in

  the group whose name did not appear. I appealed to the

  Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. They took my case up

  and filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  "A Letter from De Boss"

  All this did not mean that the NAACP national office

  was short on advice. While they did not feel responsible

  enough to take the appeal to higher courts, they did feel

  responsible enough to send me a letter upon my return from

  Cuba in the summer of 1 960. I subsequently made two trips

  to Cuba.

  My experiences in Monroe and with the NAACP which

  had resulted in launching The Crusader were also sharpening

  my awareness of the struggles of Negroes in every part of

  the world, how they were treated, their victories and their

  defeats. It was clear from the first days that Afro-Cubans

  31

  NEGROES WITH GUNS

  were part of the Cuban revolution on a basis of complete

  equality and my trips confirmed this fact. A Negro, for example, was head of the Cuban armed forces and no one could hide that fact from us here in America. To me this revolution

  was a real thing, not one of those phony South American

  palace revolutions. There was a real drive to bring social

  justice to all the Cubans, including the black ones. Beginning

  late in 1 959 I had begun to run factual articles about Cuba in

  The Crusader, pointing up the racial equality that existed

  there. The articles seem to have stirred up the national office

  for they sent me a letter which included statements such as

  these:

  " . . . I wonder, however, whether you are fully aware of

  the dangers and disadvantages of the course of action you

  seem to favor. I have followed closely the events in Cuba in

  recent months and in particular, Dr. Castro's visit to the

  United Nations this fall. Regardless of the merits of the

  Cuban cause I was greatly disturbed by the frequent show of

  insincerity which, I believe, should give you food for thought

  before you find yourself used as just another pawn in the

  present unfortunate feud between Cuba and our country.

  " . . . It is a callous interference in a native American

  problem and should be recognized as such by anyone in a

  responsible position of leadership in the American Negro

  movement.

  " . . . the present Cuban attempts to endear themselves

  to American Negroes are obviously caused by ulterior motives. (Let me just ask you how the American Negro tourist would feel in Cuba at the constant chant of 'Cuba si, Yanqui

  no!')

  " . . . Are you willing to forsake the important support

  of that section of the people who are equally opposed to

  suppression of Negro rights in our country?

  " . . . Does not the unfortunate example of the great

  American Negro singer Paul Robeson show you the dangers

  and mistakes of the road which you seem to be choosing?

  What has Paul Robeson with all his greatness done for the

  American Negro in his present struggle for equality: The answer, regrettable as it is, must be: Nothing."

  32

  THE STRUGGLE FOR MILITANCY IN THE NAACP

  These excerpts were reprinted in The Crusader and replied to in this way:

  "Only a fool or a mercenary hypocrite could muster the

  gall to call a nation and its great leader insincere in dealing

  with the captive blacks of North America when in the course

  of their daily lives they display the greatest measure of racial

  equality and social justice in the world today. It is certainly

  a first magnitude truism that social justice starts at home

  and spreads abroad. In past months I have twice been to

  Cuba and there is nothing insincere about my being made to

  feel that I was a member of the human race for the first time

  in my life. If this is America's idea of insincerity, then heaven

  help this nation to become insincere like Fidel Castro and

  Free Cuba in granting persons of African descent entrance

  into the human race.

  "As for my being 'used as a pawn in the struggle of

  Cuba' against imperialist and racist North America, I prefer

  to be on the side of right than on the side of Jim Crow and

  oppression. I prefer to be used as an instrument to convey

  the truth of a people who respect the rights of man, rather

  than to be used as an Uncle Tom whitewasher of black oppression and injustice and an apologist for America's hypocrisy. Cuba's aversion for America's inhumanity to man is not an interference in a 'native American problem.' It is common

  knowledge that the master race of the 'free world' is out to

  export North American manufactured racism. Racism in the

  U.S.A. is as much a world problem as was Nazism. If the

  U.S.A. is to be the only nation exempt from the Human Rights

  Charter of the United Nations, then that august body is a

  party to the great transgressions against America's captive

  people. I, for one, refuse to remain silent and cooperate with

  the very force that is seeking after my destruction.

  "The racists in America are the most brutal people on

  earth. It is foolhardy for an oppressed Afro-American to take

  the attitude that we should keep this life-death struggle a

  family affair. We are the oppressed, it is only natural for us

  to air our grievances at home and abroad. This race fight in

  the U.S.A. is no more a fight to be fought just by Americans

  than is the fight for black liberation to be conducted by col-

  33

  NEGROES WITH GUNS

  ored only. Any struggle for freedom in the world today affects the stability of the whole society of man. Why would you make our struggle an exception?

  "I am not afraid of alienating white friends of our liberation movement. If they really believe in freedom they will not resent deviation from the old worn path that has led us in

  fruitless circles. If they are insincere they are no more than

  Trojan horses infiltrating our ranks to strike us a treacherous, nefarious blow on behalf of those and that which they pretend to detest. For if they resent our becoming truly liberated, they will detest us for not following their misguidance and skillful subterfuge designed to prevent our arrival to the

  promised land. They speak much of tolerance, but they display unlimited intolerance toward those Afro-Americans who refuse to become their puppets and yes-man Uncle

  Toms.

  "It is strange that I am asked how a ' Negro' American

  tourist would feel in Cuba hearing the constant chant of

  'Cuba Si, Yanqui No!' No one has bothered to ask how it feels

  to constantly face 'White Only' signs. These signs mean

  'White yes, Colored no!' No one has asked me how it feels to

  be marched under guard with felons along a public street to

  jail for sitting on a 'white only' stool. On hearing 'Cuba Si,

  Yanqui No!' an
d having lived all of my life under American

  oppression, I was emotionally moved to join the liberation

  chorus. I knew it didn't apply to me because the white Christians of the 'free world' have excluded me from everything

  'yanqui.'

  "You make a cardinal mistake when you fail to give the

  great Paul Robeson credit for making a great contribution to

  the American 'Negro' struggle. Paul Robeson is living proof

  that the Afro-American need not look upon the United States

  as 'Nigger heaven' and the last stop for us on this earth.

  Paul is living proof that other civilized societies honor and

  respect black people for the things that 'Free America'

  curses, oppresses and starves for. Paul has proven that all

  black men are not for sale for thirty pieces of silver. He has

  lit a candle that many of the new generation will follow.

  "Yes, wherever there is oppression in the world today,

  34

  THE STRUGGLE FOR MILITANCY IN THE NAACP

  it is the concern of the entire race. My cause is the same as

  the Asians against the imperialist. It is the same as the African against the white savage. It is the same as Cuba against the white supremacist imperialist. When I become a part of

  the mainstream of American life, based on universal justice,

  then and then only can I see a possible mutual cause for

  unity against outside interference."

  I don't want to leave the impression that I am against

  the NAACP; on the contrary I think it's an important weapon

  in the freedom struggle and I want to strengthen it. I don't

  think they should be worrying about Cuba when there is

  plenty to worry about in our country. They know, as I know,

  the extent to which the state governments and the Federal

  government ignored our appeals for help and protection.

  Hypocrisy and Run-around

  After we closed the pool, as I've already described, the

  racists in Monroe went wild. On that same day, after we had

  gone home, a mob dragged a colored man from his car and

  took him out into the woods where they beat him, stood him

  up against a tree and threatened to shoot him. I had called

  the Associated Press and the UPI and reported that this man

  had been kidnapped and I also called the Justice Department. Apparently just when this man's attackers were getting ready to shoot him, the chief of police came out and rescued him. How did the chief of police know where to find

  him in the woods? Later on this Negro was unable to indict

  anyone who had attacked him even though he recognized

  some of the members of the would-be lynch mob. The FBI

  refused to demand any indictments for kidnapping.

  The racists would come through the colored community at night and fire guns and we had an exchange of gunfire on a number of occasions. One night an armed attack was

  led on my house by a sergeant of the State National Guard.

  He was recognized, but no action was taken against him. And

  the chief of police denied that an attack had taken place. We

  35

  NEGROES WITH GUNS

  kept appealing to the Federal government. It was necessary

  to keep a guard of about twenty volunteers going every

  night-men who volunteered to sleep at my house and to

  walk guard. This was the only way that we could ward off

  attacks by the racists. The telephone would ring around the

  clock, sometimes every fifteen minutes, with threatening

  calls.

  Then through my newsletter, The Crusader, I started appealing to readers everywhere to protest to the U.S. government, to the U.S. Justice Department; to protest the fact that the 1 4th Amendment did not exist in Monroe and that the

  city officials, the local bureau of the FBI in Charlotte, and the

  Governor of the state of North Carolina were in a conspiracy

  to deny Monroe Negroes their Constitutional rights.

  One of the readers of The Crusader wrote to Congressman Kowalski of Connecticut, who in turn wrote a letter to the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy. He said that he had

  been appalled to learn about the lawlessness in Monroe, and

  how this was damaging to our country at a time when the

  United States was claiming to be a champion of democracy

  in the world. The Congressman asked for an investigation.

  But despite all those letters and telegrams to the U.S. Justice

  Department, no investigation was made. The only investigation they made was to ask our chief of police if these things were true. The chief of police assured them that they were

  not.

  Finally I went to the Charlotte bureau of the FBI and

  filed a long report calling for a Federal indictment of the

  chief of police for denying citizens their rights guaranteed

  by the 1 4th Amendment. This report was filed, but I never

  heard from the FBI. Later a newspaperman told me that he

  had heard from the Justice Department and that they

  claimed they could find no evidence of any violation of the

  1 4th Amendment in Monroe. They never did bother to answer me.

  Yet it was at this time that I received a letter from the

  United States Department of State. In this letter they denied

  my family and me the right to travel to Cuba, where we had

  been invited for the 26th of July celebration. The grounds

  36

  THE STRUGGLE FOR MILITANCY IN THE NAACP

  for their refusal were: "because of the break in diplomatic

  relations between the United States and Cuba, the government of the United States cannot extend normal protective services to its citizens visiting Cuba."

  This false pretense of being interested in protecting me

  was a farce of the first magnitude and classic hypocrisy. Numerous threats and four attempts of murder had been made on my life in the preceding three weeks and the would-be

  assassins, aided and abetted by local officials, were offered

  immunity from law by the deliberate silence of Federal officials to whom I had continuously appealed for "normal protective services." The Federal government couldn't possibly have been interested in protection for me and my family, for

  they passed up many opportunities to protect us here at

  home.

  This all happened a month before I was forced to leave

  Monroe.

  37

  Chapter 4

  Non-Violence Emboldens the

  laclsts: A Week of Terror

  iii iii

  iii iii

  In our branch of the NAACP there was a general feeling

  that we were in a deep and bitter struggle against racists

  and that we needed to involve as many Negroes as possible

  and to make the struggle as meaningful as possible. We felt

  that the single issue of the swimming pool was too narrow

  for our needs, that what we needed was a broad program

  with special attention to jobs, welfare, and other economic

  needs.

  I think this was an important step forward. The struggles of the Freedom Riders and the Sit-In Movements have concentrated on a single goal: the right to eat at a lunch

  counter, the right to sit anywhere on a bus. These are important rights because their denial is a direct personal assault on a Negro's dignity. It is important for the racists to maintain these peripheral forms of segregation. They establish an atmosphere that supports a system. By debasing and demoralizing the black man in small personal matters, the system eats away the sense of dignity and
pride which are necessary to challenge a racist system. But the fundamental core of racism is more than atmosphere-it can be measured in

  dollars and cents and unemployment percentages. We therefore decided to present a program that ranged from the swimming pool to jobs.

  38

  NON-VIOLENCE EMBOLDENS THE RACISTS

  The Monroe Program

  On Aug. 15, 1961, on behalf of our Chapter I presented

  to the Monroe Board of Aldermen a ten point program that

  read as follows:

  PETITION

  We, the undersigned citizens of Monroe, petition the City

  Board of Aldermen to use its influence to endeavor to:

  1 . Induce factories in this county to hire without discrimination.

  2. Induce the local employment agency to grant non-whites

  the same privileges given to whites.

  3. Instruct the Welfare Agency that non-whites are entitled

  to the same privileges, courtesies and consideration

  given to whites.

  4. Construct a swimming pool in the Winchester Avenue

  area of Monroe.

  5. Remove all signs in the city of Monroe designating one

  area for colored and another for whites.

  6. Instruct the Superintendent of Schools that he must prepare to desegregate the city school no later than 1962.

  7. Provide adequate trasportation for all school children.

  8. Formally request the State Medical Board to permit Dr.

  Albert E. Perry, Jr., to practice medicine in Monroe and

  Union County.

  9. Employ Negroes in skilled or supervisory capacities in

  the City Government.

  10. ACT IMMEDIATELY on all of these proposals and inform the

  committee and the public of your actions.

  (signed)

  Robert F. Williams

  Albert E. Perry, Jr. , M.D.

  John W. McDow

  Our demands for equal employment rights were the

  most important of the ten points. Many plants were moving

  in from the North-runaway industry from the North moving

  in to avoid labor unions, seeking low-priced workers in the

  South. They received considerable tax-supported conces-

  39

  NEGROES WITH GUNS

  sions from the local Industrial Development Commission

  and they didn't hire any Negroes. In fact, local bigoted officials had done everything in their power to prevent Negroes from obtaining employment. They had even gone so far as

  to stipulate that the new industries could not hire Afro­