The Roots of Black Power and the Tradition of Self-

Defense

Ansel HerzSept. 16, 2008

A Militant Tradition

Black Power's “essential spirit was the product of generations of black people dealing with powerlessness” (119).

Tradition of armed self-defense dates back to slave resistance and Reconstruction militancy

Explicit calls for militancy originate with Ida B. Wells and DuBois at turn of the century

Shotguns, pistols, and rifles

President of the Tuskegee Institute Sharecroppers Union in Alabama Medgar Evers Martin Luther King Jr. Daisy Bates

“Armed self-reliance” was “typical of the generation of southern blacks that launched the civil rights movement” (121).

The Youth of Robert F. Williams

Born in 1925 Family history of activism Saw race riots in Detroit Drafted into WWII's segregated army 21-year-old returns to Monroe in 1946 Black veterans organize to block KKK

from disturbing compatriot's grave

Gathering the Troops

1955: Reunites with black veterans to re-animate local NAACP chapter

200 members by 1959 Unique in its membership

among lower- and middle-class

Majority of members are women, domestic workers

“The Kissing Case”

1958: Hanover Thompson, ten-year-old black boy, kisses white girl in game

White mobs threaten families; police detain and beat them, boys convicted in absurd trial

Williams and NAACP launch intensive media campaign, causing flood of letters

“If the government is so concerned about its image... let it create a society that will stand up under world scrutiny” (129).

“Meet violence with violence”

Lynchings, rapes, and anti-black terror continue in South

Two racist trials in Monroe prompt black outrage

Williams speaks openly of need for self-defense (and revenge?)

NAACP, to immunize itself against red-baiting, condemns Williams in public show-trial

“I WILL NOT CRAWL” (133).

Philosophy of armed self-reliance

Holistic black nationalism: cultural, economic, political, and conscious self-advancement

Self-defense under the rubric of the Constitution, but in solidarity with Third World struggles

Did not object to integration or nonviolent tactics, winning grassroots support for flexibility

Embraced growing sit-in movement in early on in 1960

Published The Crusader, a national newsletter

Exile and radicalization

1961: Forced into exile in Cuba by FBI

Meets Fidel, Mao, communist leaders

Intensely radicalized, continues publishing newsletter

Returns in late 1960s, dies in 1996

Southern self-defense coalitions

Deacons for Defense and Justice in Louisiana Protective force for Tuscaloosa Citizens for

Action Committee in Alabama “Haven communities” in Mississippi By 1968, decreasing necessity of armed

groups Shared characteristics: out-of-view,

paramilitary, working in concert or on behalf of nonviolent activists

Williams' black nationalist successors

Black Panther Party Revolutionary Action Mov. Republic of New Africa Rejected nonviolence Drew heavily on Williams' legacy More aggressive, violent rhetoric

symbolized the importance of black manhood more than it served pragmatic ends

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5457524655277645843

Discussion Question #1

What brand of militant black power in your opinion was more successful? The Deacon-style security apparatus for movement activists or the revolutionary paramilitarism of the Black Panthers?

Why? Is there a place for armed self-reliance by marginalized communities today?

Discussion Question #2

How might Robert Williams' legacy be different had the (nonviolent) civil rights movement leadership of the day fully supported him? Why didn't they? What if he hadn't been forced into exile?

Might there have been more cooperation and less division between the armed and non-violent wings of the movement?