International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Robert F. Williams was an African American civil rights activist whose tactics challenged some widely held notions of the origins of Black Power and the nature of the Southern civil rights movement. He was born on February 26, 1925 in Monroe, North Carolina. His first taste of activism came during World War II, when he worked in Detroit with Local 600 of the United Automobile Workers of America, CIO. Between 1944 and 1955, Williams served stints in the Army and the Marines, attended three different colleges, and sought work outside the South to relocate his family. By 1955, Williams returned to Monroe and became president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As president, Williams began to recruit among lower-class blacks, including tenant farmers and domestic workers, with a particular emphasis on young people. Williams helped organize protests against segregated facilities in town at a time when the local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) experienced a dramatic resurgence. On October 5, 1957, Williams responded to Klan violence, organizing armed resistance to a KKK motorcade when it attacked the home of an NAACP officer. The Klan members quickly dispersed, and the Monroe city council immediately banned the group's motorcades. Several high-profile court cases brought further attention to Williams. In the 1958 “kissing case,” two black ... log in or subscribe to read full text