Williams, Robert F.

As a pivotal figure in the Black Liberation movement, Robert F. Williams has not received the attention doted on Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, etc. perhaps due to his controversial advocacy of African American armed self-reliance. The Freedom Archives brings to life his fascinating story--from his youth steeped in the anti-black violence and his leadership of the Monroe, NC chapter of the NAACP to his subsequent exile in Cuba to escape from the FBI--in a fully produced audio program, Robert F. Williams: Self-Defense, Self-Respect & Self-Determination. 
 
This release weaves together Williams' speeches, excerpts of his shortwave radio broadcasts in exile, and interviews with his contemporaries, all tied together with his widow Mabel R. Williams's personal narrative regarding her experiences fighting alongside Williams for the rights of not just Afrecan Americans, but the oppressed around the world. As a personal friend to Rosa Parks (who spoke at Williams' funeral in 1996) and Malcolm X, and as a figure whose ideas influenced Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party, Robert F. Williams occupies the crossroads between the Civil Rights and the Black Power movements. 
 
Self-Defense, Self-Respect & Self-Determination provides a historical as well as a personal perspective on this oft-overlooked controversial figure in American history. Released in association with AK Press and The Freedom Archives.