Robert Franklin Williams speaks : a documentary history / edited with an introduction by Ronald J. Stephens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996, author.

Contributor:

Stephens, Ronald Jemal, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996.

Williams, Robert F.

African Americans--Civil rights.

African Americans.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 369 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Anthem Press, 2024.

Summary:

Williams fought a good fight for a better democracy and the collective equal rights of African Americans. He was not just a revolutionary voice and internationalist leader and voice in the Black Power movement, and should not be forgotten or dismissed because he maintained other reasons for raging his grievance towards the policies and practices of democracy in the United States. Robert F. Williams neither should be reduced to the status of a tool of Cold War politics nor to a study about armed self-defence. Rather, in his contesting the government's refusal to defend the human rights of 22 million African Americans, Williams' actions and uncompromising stance directly and affirmatively addressed the promise and rights guaranteed under US citizenship and the constitutional rights of the members of that society. Williams critically questioned numerous unjust acts and human rights violations, and waged (often a one-family man) war against America's inability to practice principles of freedom and democracy, when these mistreatments were ignored. Robert F. Williams was an independent thinker, a compassionate and intelligent man. He was a common man, and despite his lofty intelligence, he was an American, claiming his right to his American citizenship. He was acutely aware of the broken promises of the United States. Yet, he nonetheless remained fully invested in assuming all of the rights, privileges, and responsibilities the Constitution guaranteed American citizens of African descent.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Photographs and Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue

PART I

Introduction

Roots, Racism, Routes, and Resistance: Robert and Mabel Williams’s Take on Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”

Racism, Rights, and Resistance: Robert and Mabel Williams in the Newtown Community

Sankofa vs Communism: Robert and Mabel Williams Navigating Castroism and Maoism

Returning to the States, Resigning from the RNA, Navigating China and Racism in the United States, by Championing Civil and Human Rights in Lake County, Michigan

PART II

Chapter 1 MONROE, NORTH CAROLINA, 1955–1961

Sermon Delivered at All Soul’s Chapel Unitarian Fellowship, MONROE, NORTH CAROLINA, Sunday, March 25, 1956

NAACP Findings and Recommendations in Hearing on Robert Williams Before Committee on Branches, June 3 and 8, 1959

North Carolina State Conference of Branches

Letter to Gloster B. Current from Charles A. McLean, June 15, 1959

Crusaders for Freedom Press Release

The Monroe Program

Robert F. Williams, Letter-to-the-editor

John Schultz’s Interview with Robert Williams in Chicago, February 1961

Testimonies of Robert and Mabel Williams

Testimony of Robert F. Williams in the Case, State of North Carolina versus Richard Crowder, Harold Reape, John Lowry, and Mae Mallory, August 27, 1961

Testimony of Mabel R. Williams in the Case, State of North Carolina versus Richard Crowder, Harold Reape, John Lowry, and Mae Mallory, August 27, 1961

Letters to Robert F. Williams

Roy Wilkins Writes to Robert Williams, May 8, 1959 Generated by AI.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jun 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

9781839984587

1839984589

9781839984594

1839984597

OCLC:

1438667909