Search Results
Self Respect, Self Defense & Self Determination - Part 1
Date: 3/14/2004Call Number: CD 435Format: CDProducers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Mabel Williams & Kathleen Cleaver in conversation - introduced by Angela Davis at the First Congregational Church - Oakland, CA.
Moderated by Rachel Herzing.
This is the complete audio (un-edited) and available as an edited Video.
Self Respect, Self Defense & Self Determination - Part 2
Date: 3/14/2004Call Number: CD 436Format: CDProducers: Freedom ArchivesCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Mabel Williams & Kathleen Cleaver in conversation - introduced by Angela Davis at the First Congregational Church - Oakland, CA.
Moderated by Rachel Herzing.
This is the complete audio (un-edited) and available as an edited Video.
Mabel Williams interviewed by Walter Turner
Date: 3/4/2004Call Number: CD 434Format: CDProducers: Walter TurnerProgram: Africa TodayCollection: Mabel and Robert F. Williams
Mabel Williams speaks about her life and work with Robert F Williams.
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.
Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power
Date: 1/1/2005Call Number: V 566Format: DVDProducers: 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.
The Land Question and Black Liberation
Excerpt from the book: Eldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison Writings and Speeches.
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Date: 1/1/2011Call Number: V 614Format: DVDProducers: Göran OlssonCollection: Videos – camera originals and reference materials
Footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists documenting the Black Power Movement in the United States is edited together by a contemporary Swedish filmmaker.
The Crusader Monthly Newsletter (October 1966)
China's 17 Anniversary: Afro-Americans Represented - speech at rally by Robert F. Williams Message from Mammoth Peking August 8th Rally re: American Black struggle; USA – The Impending Crisis re: racism and imperialism natural attributes of capitalism social system; China: Glorious Red Guards Dash the Evil Hopes of Reactionaries Everywhere – re: Red Guards of China are servants of the people; Lie Down with the Devil and Die – re: fate of blacks who take up whites’ battle standard; Kill Baby Kill re: those who “peacefully” submit are also dead.
Huey Newton Birthday Rally - 1
Huey's 26th birthday at the Oakland Auditorium. Bobby Seale introduced by MC, Eldridge Cleaver.
The Crusader Monthly Newsletter (March 1967)
USA: Stand By for Violence - re: growing white racist hate groups organizing for massive violence, “liquidationist” blacks more apt to denounce Black Power self-defense than these racist hate groups – call for organization and unity; The Plague of the Subversive Scarecrows – re: new breed of “Uncle Tom journalists”; USA: The Legacy of Scarecrowism - re: systematic exclusion of Black people from juries based on race and class, Blacks who get on juries must stop being “yes men” in court; The Good of the Earth – re: life in Cuba; Cuba: The Tragedy of No Proletarian Cultural Revolution – re: petty bourgeois has regained the reins of power in Cuba; What Color Unity? – in support of the role of revolutionary Whites in conditioning whites for future unified action with Blacks; Marzani and Munzell: Moscow Oriented Rogues – re: publishers of Negroes with Guns refusing to pay royalties to Williams; Agent at Large: Revolutionaries Beware! – denouncing D.H. Mansur, operating out of Tanzania; China’s Cultural Revolution – re: necessity for and objectives of Cultural Revolution.
