Robert Franklin Williams Page 4
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