Listen Live
Listen Live Graphics (Indy)

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.

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.

Little Known Black History Fact: Robert F. Williams  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

1 2Next page »