How Did Robert Williams Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Sabeena Jagdeo

Robert F. Williams and the Civil Rights Movement

Robert Williams was a strong African American leader in the Civil Rights movement, who is often not recognized because his views were misunderstood and very controversial. He was a man who was not only interested in the liberation of African Americans, but was “interested in the problems of all mankind” (82). In Monroe he was amongst militant leaders “who were beginning to form a new movement, a new militant movement designed for the total liberation of the Afro-Americans” (64). So, despite the fact that he is not a well known Civil Right activist, Williams played a major part in the process towards liberation for African Americans.

In Monroe, Williams was a primary leader of the movement. He pushed for justice and the idea of self-defense. While doing so, he encountered many false charges, that would ultimately cause him to flee to Cuba. By the FBI, he was portrayed as a schizophrenic, “razor fighting nigger”(55), who was extremely dangerous. All of these charges were based on nothing, but the words of the local chief of police who was known to be friends with the KKK. The only crime that Williams found himself guilty of “was the crime of fighting for human rights in the south” (54).

Furthermore, at this time the federal government was not cooperating with African

Americans in any way. They would deny any injustice that African Americans faced and when they did recognize it, they refused to intervene, saying that it was a local matter. Essentially “the Justice Department of the United States is itself contaminated by racist influences” (56) at this time.
Along with hardships from the federal government, Williams and the rest of the people encountered discriminating labels like communist and Black Nationalism, which would make liberation harder to achieve. Williams and other African Americans were never in anyway apart of the communist movement. Some people did not even know what communism was. It was only a word racist used, so that freedom could not be reached for oppressed people. Black Nationalism was used similarly to communism. It was as meaningless as the communist label to Williams. In the eyes of African Americans, these words were only used by racist whites to mislead the American people. They did not in any way accurately represent the movement in Monroe, or the Civil Rights movement as a whole.
Robert Williams was a very controversial figure in the Civil Rights movement.

He advocated for self-defense, which was a topic that was misunderstood amongst the American community. For this reason, he is not as memorable as leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., but that does not mean that he was not important. He was very influential in Monroe and fought for justice not only for African Americans, but for all oppressed people around the world, and should be remembered as a great leader because of these actions. Williams was not a dangerous man, but an important leader in the movement, who believed “in justice for all people”

(82).