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By Scott, Philly ABCF
"Negroes with Guns," by Robert F. Williams,
is a neglected classic of the southern Black civil rights movement. With
its title, it isn't hard to guess why it has been forgotten. Yet, it is
a fascinating history that illuminates many hidden aspects of the civil
rights movement. In addition, it has vital lessons for today,
Robert Williams, as an ex-Marine recently discharged from duty, returned
to his hometown of Monroe North Carolina at just about the same time as
the historic Supreme Court desegregation decision. When he tried to join
the local NAACP chapter, he found that it was shrinking rapidly, like
many others, because of intimidation from racists enraged by the Supreme
Court's decision. The remaining chapter members elected Williams president
and then quit. Within a couple of years of this terrible start, Williams's
chapter had successfully gained the integration of the public library
with a hardy fight; other successes were to follow. Instead of relying
on the Black middle-class, the traditional members of the NAACP, Williams
had recruited heavily the Black poor and working classes. Their chapter
quickly gained a reputation of strength and of not relying on standard
middle class methods.
Guns have always been common in the South, both Blacks and whites frequently
had them and used them. However, organized groups engaging in armed self
defense of the Black community were generally rare since Reconstruction.
Yet organized armed self defense was one of the main strategies that the
Monroe chapter developed in its work. The first major test of this strategy
was in the summer of 1957 when a Klu Klux Klan caravan attempted to attack
a chapter member's home. The chapter was prepared and armed, and after
a gun battle with no casualties, the Klan fled.
Williams is careful to point out that the Monroe chapter had reputedly
requested that the authorities from city to federal level stop the Klan's
intimidation, of course no one acted and the federal government didn't
even respond. He also points out that after the gunfight, the city government
moved rapidly to ban any Klan demonstration without a special permit.
Williams goes on to say that two weeks later the same Klan group attempted
to attack the nearby Lumbee Native American community where they were
chased off again by gunfire. This second incident received national attention
while the confrontation in Monroe was mostly ignored.
Relations between the Monroe chapter and the middle-class dominated national
headquarters of the NAACP had always been tense since Williams joined
and this conflict came to a head in 1959. A white man was put on trial
for the vicious rape of a Black woman. A white woman testified on the
Black woman's behalf and the Monroe chapter secured a lawyer from New
York to help. It was to no avail. A conviction was impossible in the extreme
racist atmosphere. Williams relates that many of the Black women demanded
to know what the Black community should do now. Before the trial Williams
had encouraged the community to use the legal system, but to respond to
this pressure and to make sure racists knew it wasn't going to be open
season on Blacks, he released a statement that, among other things, declared
"...the Negro in the South can not expect justice in the courts.
He must convict his attackers on the spot, he must meet violence with
violence..." The statement received national attention and criticism.
Roy Wilkins, the head of the NAACP, acted immediately and suspended Williams.
In spite of controversy, the Monroe chapter continued to have success.
They participated in the wave of sit-ins across the South in 1960 to desegregate
public facilities. While severe violence occurred in other areas, nothing
of the kind occurred in Monroe, which Williams puts to their record of
successful self defense. During the campaign to desegregate the Monroe
swimming pool, however, racist whites "went wild." Three different
attempts on Williams's life were made. During one especially harrowing
incident a mob formed around Williams's car after it had just been rammed
by a racist's car. Williams and other NAACP members in the car stood off
the mob using guns (several racists also had guns) and even prevented
themselves from being disarmed by the local police. The state police finally
cleared the mob to prevent a blood bath.
Up to this point in the story, Williams has carefully explained how the
intelligent use of self defense has not only saved the lives of many Blacks,
but actually prevented much violence from occurring in the first place.
In an isolated town where blacks were only a quarter of the population
they had matched all the major achievements of the mainstream civil rights
movement. Now in 1961, the strategies of the middle-class dominated national
movement would be contrasted with that of the Monroe's local movement
in Monroe itself. By this time the Monroe chapter had come up with a series
of demands including heavy emphasis on economic demands, which was years
ahead of most other groups. The chapter was prepared for long-term struggle
but still welcomed help in whatever way it came. Help did come from the
"Freedom Ride" campaign. Unfortunately this nationally coordinated
campaign did not respect the tactics that the local community had developed.
The Freedom Riders, which included many whites, immediately made a public
pledge of nonviolence upon arrival. Williams describes how he believes
this, and the riders' passive behavior, was responsible for a dramatic
rise in racist attacks including many on the Riders themselves. The descriptions
of paternalism from some of the white Freedom Riders are laughable but
the descriptions of violence are not. In response to a protest at the
courthouse, thousands of racists came from miles around, many of them
encouraged to come by local police. This mob was the culmination of a
week of threats and beatings. Some of the Freedom Riders were rescued
by armed Blacks in cars, others were beaten and arrested. The mob proceeded
to attack any Blacks they could find and when night came, racists began
attacking the Black section of town. Again, armed Blacks held off white
attacks. Williams, however, received phoned death threats from the police
chief and decided to leave town to get help. Shortly afterwards, he learned
of his indictment on trumped up charges and fled to Canada and then Cuba.
Cuba gave Williams a base from which to publish his newsletter, "The
Crusader," and organized world-wide support for other Blacks framed
up on racist charges in Monroe and elsewhere. He also pushed for the building
of links between Blacks in the U.S., and people of color throughout the
world. This anti-imperialist position was, like many of Williams's other
positions, ahead of its time. Several years later, Williams returned to
the U.S. and helped to found the Republic of New Afrika, which incorporated
his self defense theories from the start.
The accepted version, even among many radicals, of the history of the
Black liberation movement of the sixties is that non-violence worked against
blatantly racist Jim Crow laws in the South, but were inadequate to deal
with the deeper, more subtle economic inequalities in the North, where
frustrated Blacks turned to organizers like the Black Panthers. The truth
which "Negroes with Guns" help shows is that non-violence, by
itself, wasn't even adequate against Jim Crow.
Other histories of the civil rights struggle support this alternative
view. In "Struggle" by Clayborn Carson, an acclaimed history
of SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee), Carson states, "the
relative paucity of violence in some communities was attributed by SNCC
workers not to the Federal presence, but to the willingness of Black to
arm themselves." In 1965, on the civil rights march through Mississippi,
armed guard was provided by the Deacons For Defense, a Black self defense
group. Even Martin Luther King, a participant, consented to this when
it was clear that self defense was what marchers wanted. Possibly the
best example was the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, in Alabama.
Their militant armed stance and symbol - the black panther - served as
direct inspiration for California's Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
Neither Robert Williams nor the organizations listed above confused legal
armed self defense with armed insurrection or guerrilla struggle. All
supported mass organizing of all kinds, including non-violent civil disobedience.
However they believed they could not trust authorities and recognized
that the discipline and pride that came from effective self defense was
essential in all levels of struggle. It is possible though, that many
of these activists believed that offensive armed action would be needed
someday and they would be better prepared than most. Williams in particular,
who traveled to Cuba as early as 1960, was probably weighing these possibilities.
Increasingly, many today feel the same way. Once again, grotesque racist
murders by police and racists are in the news along with Black organizations
proclaiming their right to armed self defense. Sadly, the response by
liberals is often the same as it was in 1960, declaring self defense to
be "proactive" and "divisive". these are easy statements
to make from a position of privilege, but the facts show, that right wing
violence is rising across the board. Anti-abortion violence, homophobic
violence and violence against immigrants is chronic and the state, as
it always will, fails to provide adequate protection. When this is the
situation, armed self defense must be at least part of the discussion
of how to respond. For this reason, "Negroes with Guns" is required
reading for all progressive and revolutionary activists.
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