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Self Respect, Self Defense & Self Determination; a Moderated conversation with Mabel Williams and Kathleen Cleaver
Date: 3/14/2004Call Number: V 134Format: VHSProducers: Collision Course VideoCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Self Respect, Self Defense & Self Determination
An event held at the First Congregational Church in Oakland on Sunday, March 14, 2004 with Mabel Williams and Kathleen Cleaver. Both women were welcomed and introduced by Angela Davis.
These two inspiring women of the 60s Black liberation struggle met to share their personal experiences - resisting the KKK and police repression, forced into exile by government repression, and their international experiences in Third World nations.
Mabel Williams, with her late husband Robert F. Williams, met with Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung to help internationalize support for the Black Liberation Movement.
Kathleen Cleaver was Communications Secretary and the first woman on the Central Committee of the Black Panther Party.
The event was sponsored by The Freedom Archives in partnership with:
East Side Arts Alliance Community Center in the San Antonio district of Oakland, California
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement - Oakland
A Conversation with Mabel Williams at Chabot College
Date: 3/17/2004Call Number: V 148Format: VHSProducers: Chabot CollegeCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Mabel Williams speaks with a college audience about the origins of the Black liberation movement. Includes questions and answers.
Kathleen & Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale and Charles Garry
Kathleen & Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale and Charles Garry raw materials from Channel 5.
Kathleen & Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Seale
Kathleen & Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Seale from channel 5.
Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power
Date: 1/1/2005Call Number: V 255Format: VHSProducers: Sandra Dickson, Churchill RobertsCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Robert F. Williams was the forefather of the Black Power movement and broke dramatic new ground by internationalizing the African American struggle. Negroes with Guns is not only an electrifying look at an historically erased leader, but also provides a thought-provoking examination of Black radicalism and resistance and serves as a launching pad for the study of Black liberation philosophies. Insightful interviews with historian Clayborn Carson, biographer Timothy Tyson, Julian Bond, and a first person account by Mabel Williams, Robert’s wife, bring the story to life.
Robert Franklin Williams was born in Monroe, North Carolina in 1925. As a young man he worked for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit until he was drafted into the United States Army in 1944—where he learned to take up arms.
Back in Monroe, Williams married Mabel Robinson, a young woman who shared his commitment to social justice and African American freedom. After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Klan activity in Monroe skyrocketed, successfully intimidating African Americans and nearly shutting down the local chapter of the NAACP. Williams revived it to nearly 200 strong by reaching out to everyday laborers and to fellow Black veterans—men who were not easily intimidated. When repeated assaults on Black women in the county were ignored by the law, Williams filed for a charter from the NRA; the Black Armed Guard was born. During a 1957 integration campaign that faced violent white resistance, Williams’ armed defense guard successfully drove off legions of the Klan and electrified the Black community.
In 1961, Freedom Riders came to Monroe, planning to demonstrate the superior effectiveness of passive resistance over armed self-defense. They were bloodied, beaten and jailed, and finally called on Williams for protection from thousands of rioting Klansmen. Despite the threatening mobs, Williams sheltered a white family from violence, only to be later accused of kidnapping them. Fleeing death threats, Rob and Mabel gathered their children, left everything behind and fled for their lives—pursued by FBI agents on trumped-up kidnapping charges.
Williams and his family spent five years in Cuba where he wrote his electrifying book, Negroes With Guns and produced Radio Free Dixie for the international airwaves. They later moved on to China, where they were well received — but always longed for their forbidden home. In 1969, Williams exchanged his knowledge of the Chinese government for safe passage to the States. Rob and Mabel lived their remaining days together in Michigan where he died in 1995. His body was returned at long last to his hometown of Monroe, N.C.
Let it Burn - Robert Franklin Williams Interview
Date: 1/1/1968Call Number: V 220Format: VHSProducers: Robert CohenCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Interview Highlights include:
The KKK's plan to murder Williams & destroy his NAACP Branch. The basis of the kidnapping charges. Why Castro granted Williams political asylum in Cuba. The Communist Party's opposition to his advocacy of Black Nationalism. Che Guevara's friendship & support, & why Guevara left Cuba. Why Williams changed from struggling for integration to advocating revolution. The Cuban leaders he believes aided the CIA by sabotaging his work. Why he left Cuba for China, rather than a neutral nation. His denial that he functioned as a Chinese propagandist. Why he feels that Afro-Americans should support Mao Tze Tung. Why he urged Black GIs in Viet Nam to turn their weapons against racists in the USA. His reaction to the assassinations of the Kennedys & Martin Luther King. His prophecy of the coming destruction of a racially divided USA.
Terre-Haute Channel 2 NewsCast Report on prison demonstrations May 4, 1996
Date: 5/4/1996Call Number: V 617Format: VHSProducers: WTWD Channel 2 Terre HauteCollection: Videos – camera originals and reference materials
Short news report about demonstrations at Indiana State Prison in Carlisle and the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute. The protesters were part of a national campaign against the death penalty, control units and the misuse of taxpayer resources. Interview with Sister Kathleen Desautels of 8th Day Center.
Gil Noble interviews Assata Shakur in Havana, Cuba
Date: 4/10/1988Call Number: V 127Format: VHSProducers: Gil NobleProgram: Like it IsCollection: Assata Shakur
Documentary on Assata Shakur, in exile in Havana, Cuba with discussion of the Black Liberation Movement, history of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, her capture and life before and after. Documentary footage also includes Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Julian Bond
Followed by a panel discussion hosted by Gil Noble with Dorothy Cotton, Lynn Jeffries, Gloria Richardson & Ben Chavis.
Let it Burn
Year: 1968Call Number: RFW 067Format: VHSProducers: Robert CohenCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
We have no legal rights to reproduce or distribute this item! NOW V 220
• Robert Carl Cohen introduction
• Reasons for wearing the Mao button – in support of the people of China
• Circumstances behind leaving Monroe and the US: being seen as a fugitive as opposed to a refugee from racial oppression; manipulation of the White House; role of the Freedom Riders and the standing guard against white aggression; refusal to participate in non-violent protest.
• 06:00: advocating for defense or violence? RFW’s policy
• 07:00: kidnapping charge and the threat against RFW
• 08:00: Klan activities and attacks and the response
• 12:16: to Mrs. Tegall “I didn’t bring you here…”
• 13:30: reasons for leaving Monroe
• 15:00: names of those indicted in the kidnapping case
• 17:20: post-Monroe to Cuba
• 18:08: political asylum in Cuba from Fidel because of the Cuban understanding of the US as a racist country
• 19:30: opposition from some members of the CP
• 20:55: support from the Cuban people for his liberation struggle
• 22:00: did he commit treason against the US? No, treason isn’t possible under tyranny. The US gov’t betrays its people, failed to protect the rights of Black people, a constitutional failure.
• 23:30: no such thing as a neutral country for Black men (France, Sweden, Canada/RCMP)
• 24:50: justification for publishing the Crusader from Cuba
• 25:40: cause of the riots in Watts and Detroit was Washington and apathy
• 26:00 “by any means necessary”
• 26:43: reasons for leaving Cuba – beginnings of sabatoge by some members of the Cuban government
• 29:24: discussions with Che Guevara
• 30:22: equality for Black people as a revolutionary movement
• 30:50: change of masthead of Crusader corresponding to change in ideology and mood of the movement
• 33:15: names Cuban sabateurs and means of sabatoge
• 34:45: CIA activity and infiltration
• 35:45: Why go to China? Rejected by “neutral” countries, where else could a Black freedom fighter go?
• 36:40: support from the Chinese government and people
• 38:15: support for Mao as a defender of the rights of the oppressed
• 39:47: not being too influenced by negative statements
• 40:10: “I am a refugee, a victim. My first concern…”
• 40:58: Chinese not sending arms or money to US Blacks
• 42:01: Listen, Brother pamphlet, the crimes of white America, message to Black GIs to put an end to tyranny parellel to the American Revolution against the British
• 45:00: not all white Americans should be killed but some should
• 45:40: long-term killing of Blacks in the US over time
• 46:49: who killed MLK? Out of touch with reality? No.
• 47:58: parallel with Hitler Germany
• 48:55: 14th amendment and the failure of the US gov’t to protect people
• 51:06: why support from the Chinese? RFW is the first Black victim to survive and land on their soil.
• 52:17: Cultural Revolution in China
• 55:03: great turmoil to come to the US, much contempt and hatred of the US in the world
• 56:29: America is about to destroy itself
• 57:47: Washington, Patrick Henry, RFW all say by any means necessary
Black Panther Party: Public Enemy
Black Panthers speak after the breakup of the party w/ footage from the 60’s/70’s
