Robert F. Williams, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Robert F. Williams

American civil rights activist

Date of Birth: 26-Feb-1925

Place of Birth: Monroe, North Carolina, United States

Date of Death: 15-Oct-1996

Profession: radio personality, autobiographer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


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About Robert F. Williams

  • Robert Franklin Williams (February 26, 1925 – October 15, 1996) was an American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and into 1961.
  • He succeeded in integrating the local public library and swimming pool in Monroe.
  • At a time of high racial tension and official abuses, Williams promoted armed black self-defense in the United States.
  • In addition, he helped gain support for gubernatorial pardons in 1959 for two young African-American boys who had received lengthy reformatory sentences in what was known as the Kissing Case of 1958.
  • It generated national and international attention and criticism of the state. Williams obtained a charter from the National Rifle Association and set up a rifle club to defend blacks in Monroe from Ku Klux Klan or other attackers.
  • The local chapter of the NAACP supported Freedom Riders who traveled to Monroe in the summer of 1961 in a test of integrating interstate buses.
  • In August 1961 he and his wife left the United States for several years to avoid state charges for kidnapping related to actions during violence after the Riders had reached Monroe.
  • These charges were dropped by the state when his trial opened in 1975 following his return.
  • Williams identified as a Black Nationalist and lived in both Cuba and The People's Republic of China during his exile between 1961 and 1969. Williams' book Negroes with Guns (1962) has been reprinted many times, most recently in 2013.
  • It details his experience with violent racism and his disagreement with the non-violent wing of the Civil Rights Movement.
  • The text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton, and African American Defense League founder Mauricelm-Lei Millere cited it as a major inspiration.

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