| WILL NOT CRAWL excerpts from Robert Williams on Black struggle and armed self- defense in Monroe, NC The following is a brif biographical sketch of an incredible man named. Robert Williams, along with several chapters excerpted from is fimons 1962 book Negroes with Guns. Though lsswellbnown than more urban groups ke the Black Panshers, te words and. actions of Monroe, NC: mil- itant NAACP chapter weresremendovsly influenial on laterorganizations that advacated self determination, autonomy. equality and self defense. This publication was made possble by public documents of the Na- sional Humanisis Center and the Afio-American Stdies Department of the Univerity of Wisconsin-Madson. Though Robert Wliams was not an anarchis perse, we hope that this publicarion can nevertheles further dialoguets) around the themes of southern bistory, race, slf-defense, and i love and rage the North Carolina Picce Corps | WILL NOT CRAWL Excerpts from Robert F. Wiliams on Black struggle and armed self-defense in Monroe, NC ‘www.NCpiececorps wordpress.com | NCpiececorps@gmail.com On Robert F. Williams by Timothy B. Tyson Associate Profesor of Afro-American Sudies University of Wiconsin-Madison Robert Williams, born in Montoe, North Carolina, became one of the most influential African American radicals ofhis time, primarily for his advocacy of what he called “armed self-reliance” during the late 1950s and the 1960s. He engaged ina widely published written debate with Martin Luther King . in 1960 and, though his leadership abiliies were no match for Kings, he wielded n enduring influence. His life in the freedom struggles revealed the deep influence of black nationalism and armed self-defense. His influence might have been even greater had he not been forced to flee the United States in 1961 with his wife and two smal childen, machine gun slung over one shoulder, foilinga Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dragnet. In Cuba and the People’s Republic of China, Williams shared podiums with Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Tee-tung. “Radio Free Disie,” his regular programon Radio Havana from 19620 1965, blasted rump-Jicking Uncle Toms”and “Ku Klu Klan savages” from Seatel to New York City. His 1962 book, Negroes with Guns, decisive influence on the Black Panthers and a generation of young Affican American radicals, became a classic document of the Black Power movement. Juse before his death on October 15, 1996, Williams completed a draf of his autobiog- caphy, While God Lay Sleping. In s pages, in his i, we find a distillation of the bier history that shaped not only one of the South's most dynaic race rebels but thousands of other black insurgents whose milicant resistance helped end the racial caste system in the United States Robert Williams was born in 1925 o Emma C. and John L. Williams His father was a ralroad boiler washer in Monroe, North Carolina, a town of six thousand in the North Carolina piedmont. His grandfather, Sikes Williams, born a slave in Union County, had auended Biddle Insitute in nearby Charlove afier Emancipation and became a Republican Party activist during the lae nineceenth century. Sikes Williams also published a small newspaper called “The Peoples Voice” and denounced the white supremacy campaign, which took the vote from black citizens a the turn of the ewentieth century: Roberts grandmother, Ellen Williams, also born a lave, was a daily pres- ence in his childhood: Williams remembered her as “my greatest friend.” He re- called that “she read everything” and that she “specialized in history.” She would point to the old printing press n the shed and tell the young boy stories of the cru- sading editor’s policical explois. Before she died, Ellen Williams gave young Robert a gift that symbolized much that slavery and the struggle for liberty had tught her: the ancient rifle that his grandfather had wielded against white terrorsts During World War II, Williams moved to Detroit, where he worked at the Ford Motor Company, joined a militant labor union, and bacled white mobs ' in the Detroit race riot of 1943, Drafted in 1944, Williams endured the ironies of marching for frecdom in a scgregated army. Though the racial discrimi the army angered Wiliams, military taining gave him and a generation of African American veterans “some fecling of security and self-assurance,” he recalled. “The Army indoctrination instilled in us what a virtue it was to ight for democracy and that we were fighting for democracy and upholding the Constitution. But most of all they taught us o use arms.” Like thousands of other African American veterans, Williams came home unwiling to accep the Souths racial case system. Another recurning Alfican American veteran, a friend of Williams's named Bennie Montgomery,killed hiswhite landlord n a disputeover wagesin 1946. The Ku KluKlan (KKK) wanted tolynch the black sharceropper, butinsteadstateauthorities whisked Montgomeryoutoftown, iedand convicted himof murder and enmonths ater executed him in the gas chamber ac Cenera Prison in Raleigh. Robbed of their Iynching, the local Kavern of “the invisible empire” lt i be known that Bennic Montgomery body belonged t the Klan. “They was gonna come and take Ben body out and drag it up and down the sercers” J. W, MeDow, another African American veteran, recalled. “I ather die and go to hell before sce that happen.” A group of former soldiers met at Booker T Prry's barbershop and made a bardle plan. When the Klanmototcade pulled upin front of Harris Funeral Home. orey black men leveled cheir ifles, aking aim ac the line of cars. Not ashot was fired; the Klansmen simply weighed their chances and drove away: Former U.S. Army Private First Class Robert F. Williams cradled a carbine that night. So did three of the men who would become key lieutenants in the “black miliia” that Williams organized ten years acer.“That was one of the st incidents.” Williams recalled, “that realy started us o underseanding that we had 1o resist, and that resistance could be effective i we resised in groups, and if we resisted with guns” Williams soonlef he South foralmostadecade, working brieflyat Cadillac Motor Companyin Decroitbefore using his G. 1. Bill bencfits towrie poetry andstudy pychology at three different historically black colleges: West Virginia Stae College, Johnson C. Smith College, and North Carolina Central College for Negroes e vowed in a 1949 articl fo the Detroit edition of the Daily Worker, ‘I would eturn seasoned from the fightin the norch and moreeficient n the ight forthe liberation of my people” In 1952, Williams wrote an essay for Paul Robeson's newspaper, Freedom, in which he predicted that African American college students would soon become ‘the most militant agitacors for democracy in America today: “They have nothing to lose and all o gain.” In 1953, Williams ran out of money for college and reenlised in the armed force, this time in the United States Marine Corps. “Whereverhehasgone,"an FBlobservernoted duringthisperiod,“Williams has constandly complained, both i the Army and a previous places of employment, that he has been discriminated againse” The Marine Corps was no. different. Objecting biterly to racal discrimination, Willams clashed with his offcer, spent much of his sixteen months in the Marine Corps in the brig, and received an 2 undesirable discharge in 19535, His one bright moment asa marine came on May 17, 1954, when he heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down school segregation. “Aclast I feltthat I was a part of America and thar [ belonged.” he wrote. “T was sure hat this was the beginning of a new era of American democracy” Upon his return to Monroe in 1955, Williams joined both the local branch of the: Nasional Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACF) and a mastly white Unitarian fellowship. In a Sunday sermon delivered to his fellow Unitarians in 1956, Williams hailed the Montgomery bus boycott and celebrated what he called “the patrotsof pasive evolution.” His biter collision with the Marine Corps had not dampened his commitment to equal rights forall under he U.S. Constitution and o those clements in the American politica tadition that he believed undergirded black liberation. Invoking “the spirc of Concord, Lesington and Valley Forge,” Williams declared from the pulpt that, as he pu t, “the iberty bell peals once more and the Stars and Stripes shall wave forever” Theatmosphereatthe Monroe NAACP waslessexuberan. Inthewakeofthe Brown decision and the triumph at Montgomery. KK rallis near Monroe began to draw erowds aslarge s ifieen thousand. Dynamite avacks on black acivises in the area were common and lesser acts of terror routine. “The echo of shots and dynamiteblasts”theeditors of The Southern Patriot wrote in 1057, “has been almost continuous throughout the South.” The Monroe NAACP diwindled to six members who then contemplated disbanding. When the newest member objected 10 dissolution, the departing membership chose him to lead the chaper. “They elected me president,” Williams recalled, “and then they all lef” Findinghimselvirwually a one-man NAACP chapter, Williams turned first o the African American veterans with whom he had sood against the Klan that night back in 1946, Another veteran, Albert E. Perry, M.D., became vice presi- dent. Finding it “necessary to visit homes and appeal directly to individuals,” as ‘Williams informed the national ofice, he painstakingly recruited from the beauty parlors, pool halls, and street corners, building a cadre of roughly owo hundred members by 1959. The Monroe branch of the NAACP became “the only one ofits Kind in existence,” Julian Mayfield wrote in Commentary in 1961, “lis members and supporters, who are mosdly workers and displaced armed and disciplined fighting unit “The branch became “unique in the whole NAACP because of a working class composition and aleadership that was ot middle class,” Williams wrote. “Most important, we had a strong representation of black veterans who didt scar easly In response to the drownings of several local African American children whom segregation had forced o swim i solated farm ponds,the Monroe NAACP launched 2 campaign to desegregate the local tax-supported swimming pool in 1957. Not surprisingly,the KKK blamed the affuent Dr. Perryfor the resurgent ba and a lrge, heavily armed Klan motorcade attacked Perry’s house on summer. African American vecerans greeted the night riders with sandbag fortifications and hail of disciplined gunfire. The Monroe Board of Aldermen rmers, consttute a well- 3 immediately pased an ordinance banning KKK motorcades, a measure they had refused to consider prior to the gun batle Anevenmoreremarkablelocaldramadragged Robert Williamsontothestage of nternational poitics on Ocober 28, 1958. Two Affican American boys, “Fuzzy” Simpson and Hanover Thompson, ages cight and ten, met some white chideen in a vacantlor. Akissinggameensuedinwhichtheten-year-old Thompsonandancightyear- old white girl named Sissy Suton kissed one another. The worldwide controversy that stemmed from the “kissing case” underlined the power of sexual questions in racal politics and demonstrated both the promise and the problems of cold war politiesfor the African American freedom struggle Afterthekissingincident, Sissy Suttonsmotherreported that“Iwasfurious [ would have killed Hanover myselfif Thad the chance.” Sissy' facher took a shotgun and went laoking fr the two boys. Neighbors reported that a white mob had roared up 10 the Thompson home and threatened not only to ill the boys butalso to ynch their mothers. Later that afternoon, police officers spotted Hanover Thompson and apson pullingaed wagon loaded with sofedrink botcls. Both cops jumped out with their guns drawn,” Thompson recalled. “They snatched us up and handeuffed us and theew us in the car. When we got o che jail, they drug us out of the car and started beating us” The local juvenile court judge reported to Governor Luther H. Hodges that the police had detained the boys for thir own good, due to local feelng in the case. Authorities held the two boys for six days without permitting them o sce parents, friends, or atorneys. Passing gunmen fired dozens of shots into the Thompson home. Klan terrorists torched crosses on the lawn. Hanovers sister found his dog shot dead in the yard. For many white citizens, the case seemed to resonate with the sexual fears that accompanied their vision of where school desegregarion would lead. If black children] get into our rural schools and ride the buseswith ourswhite children;” onelocal woman wrote, ‘the Monroe kissing!incident is only a start of what we will have” On November 4, Judge J. Hampton Price convened what he termed *separate but equal” hearings or the white parents and the black boys and sentenced the pair to Morrison Training School For Negroes. If they behaved well, Judge Price told the black boys, it might be that they could be released before they were twenty-one. Robere Williamssaw the “kissing case”as more than local expression of the irrational sexual ynchpin of white supremacy; the bizaree clarity of the case and the strange politiesof the cold war suggested a larger straegy. Like Martin Luther King Jr- and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) would do in Birmingham four years ater, Williams and his friends in Monroe set out 1 use international polites o the cold war as a fulerum to push the U.S. government o intervene. Determined to make the“kissing case” global metaphor for the American racial dilemma, they fired off pres release, pestered reporters, hounded the wire services, and puc in motion what Time maguzine called “a rolling snowball” of worldvwide publiciy. Fuzzy’ “This publicity campaign quickly ateracted the suppor of the Socialise Workers Parey (SWP), 2 Trotskyite groupattempting to beak with the American lef’s endency to subordinate race to class. Efforts for socialism and black liberation must meet as equal partners, C. L. R_ James and Claude DeBruce had persuaded their SWP comrades. DeBruce, an African American member, saw the need for an independent black political leadership, preferably with tis o the NAACE, chat could “project a program in the interest of the mass of Negroes” Thus when Robere Williams emerged from the black South in 1958, the SWP stood poiscd to assis him on his own terms. Beginning in 1958, The Milisant, the SWP's newspaper, carried dozens of articles about Williams and Montoc—uwenty-five on the “kissing case” alone—coverage that overshadowied their reports on the Cuban revolution, the anticolonial uprising in the Belgian Congo, and all the other developments in the African American frcedom struggle combined. “They knew I asn' going o join any party.” he recaled, “because [ had made that plain. [ wasn' incerested in them.” The reverse, however, was not true. Robere Williams has some audacious plans which | think are feasible,” SWP organizer George Weissman wrote. “Indeed, the more I sce: of him the more 1 think he has the possibility of becoming a real Negro leader.” With logistical assistance from the SWP, Williams addressed audiences at labor hall, iberal churches, and college auditoriums across the country. Soon the “kising case” emblazoned front pages around the globe. John Shure, head of the United States Information Agency at the Hague, eported that he himself had received over ewelve thousand levers “even though the response does not appear to have been organized.” While the White House and the State Department expressed aarmat the damage 1o U.S. forcign reltions, Williams had a ready answer. I s asinine for colored people to even think of sparing the LS. State Department embarrassment abroad,” he replied. “Ifthe .S, government i so concerned about is image abroad., then let i create a society that will sand up under world scrutiny:” Three and a half months after Hanover and Sisy had kissed cach other, Governor Hodges announced, under enormous political pressue, that the boys would be released. “Thekissingease,"activist awyer Conrad Lynn observed years later, “wasthe case that got [Williams in national and intemational atention.” The case furnished ‘Williams not only with a newwork of seasoned activistsin the American lefi but also with a growing number of supporters among black nationalists in Harlem. Audley *QueenMother” Moore, an importantfigurein both communistandblacknationalist cls in Harlem from the 19205 o the 19705, organized support for Williams. He becamea regularvisitor o Louis Michaus National Memorial African Bookstoreon Seventh Avenue off 125th Street, where Michaux welcomed Williams tothe podium the store provided for the legendary Harlem stret speakers of the day. The most important of Williams's contacts among the Harlem nationalists was Malcolm X, minister at the Nation of slam’s Temple Number 7. “Every time [ used to go to New York he would invite me to speak,” Williams recalled. Malcolm would cell his congregaion “that‘our brotheris here from Norh Carolina, and heis theaonly fighting man that we have gor, and we have gor to help him so he can stay down there,” 5 Williams recounted. Williams found ready support among Harlem intellectuals, includingJulian Mayfield, John Heneik Clarke, ohn O. Killens, andotherliteraryand political figures. “They all saw something in Monroe that did not actually exise—an immediatelyrevolutionary situation,” Harold Cruse observed. Julian Mayfeld ater wrote an unpublished autobiography in which he disclosed that “a famous black writer made contact with gangsters in New Jersey and bought me two sub-machine guns which I ok to Monroe.” Williams was not the best known black leader in the United States, but he may have been the best armed. “The“kissingease” recruited newallie for Williams, but i launched himon a collsion course with the NAACP hierarchy: Since the Scottsboro tial of the 19305, the NAACP had steadfastly shunned so-called “sex cases” and political alliances that might leave the organization open to ted-baiting. Should the NAACP “ever get identifiedwithcommunism,” Kelly Alexander, headofthe North Carolina Conference of Branches, told a reporte; “the Ku Klux Klan and the White Councils will pick up the charge that we are ‘reds’ and use it s a club to beat us to death.” Differences overstrategy becamebitter: Alexandercomplained tothe national officethar Williams “has compltely turned his back on the one organization thatis responsible for him beinginthesporlighttoday."while Williams griped that Alesander “sounds more likea “Tom than ever.” Roy Wilkins, exccutive secrtary of the national organization, began 1o refer to Williams in private as *Lancelot of Monroe.” Justasthe kissing case” headlines faded in the spring of 1959, two news stores from other partsof the South gripped black America. One was th lynching of Mack Charles Parker, accused of raping a white woman in Missisippi. When Missisippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers heard that Parker had been dragged from his cell and murdered by a mob, he told his wife, “Id lke to geta gun and stareshooting.” The other was the terifing ordeal of four young black college students at Florida ABM, Their double dateaftr a college dance was interrupted by four white men wich guns and knives. The drunken assailants, who had vowed, as one of them testifed in court later, o go out and get some nigger pussy.” orced the o cightcen-year-old black men o kncel a gunpoint while they undressed the two. women and decided aloud which one they would kidnap and then gang-rape. I the wake of these highly publicized outrages, Roy Wilkins conceded in a lewer marked “NOTFORPUBLICATION” that“Tknowthe thoughtofviolence hasbeen muchin the minds of Negroes.” By early May, Wilkins admiteed that the NAACP found it “harder and harder to keep feclings from boiling over in some of our branches.” ight on the heels ofthe Parker lynching and the terrors in Tallahassee, two pressing local marters brought Robert Williams and a crowd of black women to the Union County courthouse. B. E Shaw, a white ailroad engineer, was charged with atcacking an Aftican American maid a¢ the Hotel Monroe. Slated for ial the same day, Lewis Medlin, a white mechanic, was accused of having beaten and sexually assaulted Mary Ruth Reid, a pregnant African American woman, n the presence of her five children. According to Williams, Reid’ brothers and several of the African American women of the Monroe NAACP had urged that the new machine guns be 3 tried out on Medlin before his trial 1 ol them that this matter would be handled through the lawand the NAACP would help.” Williams rcalled, “that we would beas bad as the white people if we resorted to violence” “The proceedings against the two white men compelled Williams t recon- sider his assessment. The judge dropped the charges againse Shaw in spite of the face that he file o appear or court, Dusing the brief rial of Medlin, his attorney argued that he had been “drunk and havinga ltle fun” at the time of the assaul. Furdher, Medlin was married, his lawyer told the jury; “to a lovely white woman...che pure fower ofife..do you think he would have lefe this pure flower for that?” He gestured toward Reid, who began to cry uncontrollably. Medlin was acquitted in minues. Robert Williams recalled that “the [black] women in the courtroom made such an outery,the judge had to send Medlin out the rear door” The women then turned on Williams and bicerly shamed him for filing to see to their protection. A his burning moment of an- g and bumilistion, Willams wemed w0 wire seri reporters and declared that it was time to “meet violence with violence.” Afii American ctizens unable t enlis the support ofthe courts must defend themselves. *“Since the federal government will not stop lynching, and since the so-called courts lynch our people legally” he declared, "if its necessary to stop lynching with lynching, then we must resort o that method * The next day Williams disavowed the eference tolynching, 1 do not mean that Negroes should go out and atcempt o get revenge for mistreatments or injustce,” he said, “but it s clear that there is no Fourtcenthor Fifteenth Amendment nor court protection of Negroes rights here, and Negroes have to defend themselves on the spot when they are artacked by whites.” Banner headlines flagged these words as symbols of “a new milicancy among young Negroes of the South.” Encnies of the NAACP blamed this “blooddhirsty remark” squarely on the national ofice. That very morning, when he read the words “meet violence with violence” in 2 United Press International dispatch, Roy Wilkins telephoned Robere Williams o nform him that he had been removed from hispostas president of the Monroe NAACE. “The fiftiech anniversary convention of the NAACP that summer of 1959 became a highly public show trial whose central issue was whether or not the na- tional organization would ratify Wilkinss suspension of Robert Williams. The national office printed up a pamphlet, “The Single Isue in the Robert Williams Case,”and distributed it 1o all delegates. As part of the coordinated effort o crush ‘Williams, Thurgood Marshall visited the New York offces of the FBI on June 4, 1959, and urged agents to investigate Williams *in connection with [Marshalls] e forts to combat communist attemprs o infiltrate the NAACE” Wilkins wised ev- ery available arm. Daisy Bates,the pistol-packing heroine of Little Rock, agreed o denounce Williams for advocaring self-defense—afier the national offce consented 0 buy $600 a month in “advereising” from he newspaper. “The national of Louis Lomax wrore, “subjected the Williams forces to a heavy bombardment from the NAACPs big guns” Forty speakers, including Bates, King, Jackie Robinson, 7 and dozens of distinguished lawyers, rose one afer the other to denounce Williams, But when the burly ex-marine from Montoe finally strode down the sisle o speak, he was neither intimidated nor penitent. “There is no Fourteenth Amendment in this social jungle called Dixie; Williams declared. “There is no equal protection under the law.” He had been an- gy they all knew, rials had besec him, but never had he intended to advocate acts o war. Suly no one believed that. But f te black men of Poplarvile, Mississipp, had banded togecher to guard the jil the night that Mack Parker was lynched, he s, that would not have hure the cause of justice. If the young black men who es- corted the coed who was raped in Tallshassee had been able o defend her, Williams reminded them, such action would have been legal and justified ‘even if it meant that they themselves or the white rapists were killed”“Please,” he besceched the assembly, I ask you not to come crawling to these whites on your hands and knees and make me a sacrificial lamb. And there the pleading stopped. “We as men should stand up as men and protect our women and children,” Williams declared. *T am 2 man and 1 will walk upright asa man should. I WILL NOT CRAWL Ina controversy thatthe Carolina “Times called *the biggest civl ightsstory oftheyear,” the NAACP convention vored 0 uphold the suspension of Robert Willims. The day afier Daisy Bates had urged the assembly to censure Williams for his vow to defend his home and family, she wited the attorney general of the United States to complain about dynamite actacks onher homein Litle Rock. “We have been compelled to employ private guards,”she said, Williams wrote to Bates soon afterward, I am sorry to hear that the white racists have decided 1o step up their campaign againse you. It is obvious that if you areto remainin Litle Rock you will ave t resort to the method I was suspended for adv Against this backdrop of white lawlessness and policical salemate in 1959 and early 1960, Robert Williams moved to strengthen the local movement in Mon- roe and toreach out o national audience. Though Wlliams underlined the factthat “both sdesin the freedom movement are bi-racia,” his emerging philosophy reinvig- orated many elements o the black nationalis tradition whose forceful reemergence in the mid-1960s would become known as “Black Power.” His militant message was neicher racially separatist nor rigidly ideological. Williams stressd black economic advancement, black pride, black culture, independent black politcalaction, and what he referted t0 as “armed self-rliance” He connected the southern freedom struggle with theanticolonialism oftheemerging hird world, especialy African nations. Inthe late 19505, when other integrationists focused on lunch counters and vorer registration, Williams insisted on addressng persistent black poverty: “We must consider that in Montgomery, where Negrocs are riding in the front of buses” he siid, “there are also Negroes who are starving” His approach was pr eclectic, and improvisational. There must be “Hexibiliy in the freedom suuggle,”he argued, and tactics must emerge from the confrontaion itself. At the core of his appeal, however,stood his cals for absolute racial equality under a fully enforced fl USS. Constitution, backed by an unyielding resistance 1o white supremacy. In pursuit of this uncompromising vision of interracial democracy, Williams became an editor and publisher like his grandfacher before him. Tiwo weeks afier the 1959 NAACP convention, FBIagents reported o). Edgar Hoover thatblack children were “slling a newslettr known as The Crusader on the sreets of Monroe.” I title honored the late Cyril V. Briggs, Harlem organizer of the lefi-wing African Bla Brotherhood in the caly twentieth century. The Crusader’ self-prochimed mission was "ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF RACE PRIDE AND FREEDOM.” Sample mailings yielded several thousand subscribers across the country. Williams's newsletter fed lively and importanc debate within the freedom movement about the meaning of nonviolence. “The greac debate n the integration movement in recent months,” Anne Braden of the Southern Conference Educational Fund wrote n lae 1959, “has been the questionof violence vs. nonviolence as instruments of change.” Harry Boyte, soon o be Marcin Luther King J1's first white aide, observed that “the idea of sriking back..meets 2 steady response among the downtrodden, grass roots of the south- e Negro population.” For several years, Boyee argued, Robere Williams “has suc- ceeded in reaching these grass oots,” exrcising “great influence in Union County and beyond because of his milicant position and refusal o submit to intimidation.” ‘Williams “poses a real threat to more peaceful and non-violent methods of solving ‘our problems.” The FBI, too, remained uncasy about Wiliams's expanding range of contacts. Hoover’s fle, agents reported, “rflect numerous instances where groups in various sections of the country have proclaimed and demonstrated their sym- pathies with Williams and have sent him money.” Not merely the FBI but also the most influential advocates of nonviolence flt compelled to deal with Williams's growing reputation. In a series of public debates in New York City, Williams faced A.J. Muste, Bayard Rustin, David Dellinger, and others. “Nonviolence i a pover- ful weapon in the struggle against social evil,” Williams conceded. “It represents the ultimate step in revolution against incolerable oppression, a type of struggle wherein man may make war without debasing himself” The problem, according to Williams, was that the success of nonviolence depended somewhat upon the adversary; rautlesnakes, he noted, were immune to moral appeals, as were white terrorists in the South. “When Hitler's tyranny threatened the world,” he argued, “we did not hear much about how immoral it is to meet violence with violence.” ‘Williams “drew a arge audience to his debate wih the pacifises,” George Weissman of the SWP wrote to Carl Braden in Louisville, “and handled himself quite well” In 2 widely reprinted debate first published in Liberation magazine, Wil Hiams faced Martin Luther King . Agtin careful o endorse King’s methods wher- ever they proved feasible, Williams advocated “armed self-reliance” explaining that among well-armed white vigilante, “there s open defiance to law and order throughout the South today.” Where law has broken down, he sad, it was neces- sary and right o defend home and family. “Nonviolence is a very potent weapon when the opponent is civilzed, but nonviolence s no repellent for a sadis,” Wil- 9 liams noed. “Nowhere in the annals of history does the record show a people delivered from bondage by patience slone.” Kingconceded that white violence and white intransigence had brought the movement 1o “a stage of profound crisis” African Americans were frustrated, he sid, and the “current calls or violence” reflected “a confused, anger-motivated drive ostrike back violently.” The Supreme Coures 1954 mandate and even the wiumphat Montgomery had yielded small tokens, elaborate evasions, and widespread terror. Only three responses presented themselves. One could practice “pure nonviolence, King said, but this path “could not readily anrace large masses, for it requires extraondinary discipline and courage.” A position that encompassed legitimate self- defense was more practical. King pointed out thae “all societics, from the most primitive o the most cultured and civilized, accepr [self-defense] s moral and legal “The principle of selfdefense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi” Here was where King the politician sensed his constituency. “When the Negro uses force in self-defense.” he continued, “he docs o forfet support—he may even win it, by the courage and sel-respect it reflecs. “This widely acceped position was,of course, precisely Williams's view—which was Kings problem. “Thechirdand mostunaccepuable position, Kingargued,was “theadvocacy of violence as 2 tol of advancement, organized as in warkure, deliberately and consciously” Here, then, was the pale beyond which King sought 1o cast his adversary. “Mr. Robere Williams would have us believe that there i no collectve or practical alternative,” King insisted. “He argues that we must be cringing and submissve or take up arms.” Essentially, King had invented his own Robert Williams,akindofblack Geronimo plottingmilitarysrikesagainsethewhiteman, and thenrespondedothat Robert Williams. Lackingtheologicaltrainingandcombativein hismanner, Williams made himselfvulnerabletothiscaricature. Butthephilosophical position from which Kingcentered his own argument—preferring nonviolence, but endorsing “the principle of slf-defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed”— was preciely the place where Willams had taken his stand. Afier the debate appeared in Lierationand began to esonate throughout he movement, W. E. B, Du Bois weighed in with a commentary, also entitled *Crusader Without Violence,” in which he discouraged applause for King’s critique of Williams. In Montgomery, he wrote, King had “stood firm without sureender,” but Du Bois considered it “a very grave question as to whether or not the slavery and degradation of Negroes in America has not been unnecessarily prolonged by the submission o evil More than the persuasive sill of their lders, the bold actions of African American college studentsset these philosophical debates aside and gave the barcal- ions of nonviolence their brief but compelling historical moment. On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Techical College walked into Woolworths in Greensboro, sat down at a segregated lu and asked 1o be served. Within tvo months, the sicins had spread o fify. communities across nine staes of the old Conlfederacy,infusing the freedom move- b counter, 0 ment with fresh troops and new tace Soon after the siins began, Robert Williams followed a dozen bla youths into Gamble's Drug Store in downtown Monroe and was the only person rested. Marched down the sreet in handeufs, a shotgun-toring guard on cicher sde of him, Williams spoofed himself as “the dangerous stoolsiter bandi” and vowed that he had “never fel prouder in my lfe” Young insurgents in Monroe mounted an aggressive campaign of si-ins that displayed its own unique style. “The Negroes remained in each sore only a shore time.” the Charlorte Observer reported, “usually until management closed the counters” Under court orders t abide by the law or face imprisonment, Williams defied the judge and marched with his young roops. “Wete using hit-and-run tactcs,” Williams told reporters. “They never know when wete coming or when we'e going o leave. That way we hope to wear them down,” he said, managing to sound like platoon leader even while participating in passive: resistance campaign. “They were always doing something,” the manager of Jones Drug Store recalled. “I's a wonder somebody didsie kil him.” It was no mystery to ‘Williams; the main diffrence becween the sitins in Monroe and elsewhere was thac “not a single demonstrator was even spat upon during our sitins.” Williams claimed. “The uncasy peace in Monroe would soon be broken, in large measure by followersof King In 1961, Reverend Paul Brooks of SCLC and James Forman, soon o become president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), came to Montoe in the company of seventeen Frecdom Riders fresh out of jail in Jackson, Mississpp. The young insurgens aivedin Moroe to lunch a nonviolent campaignin Robert Williams'sbackyard, though Forman later denicd any intention to undermine Williams. One of the Freedom Riders announced that he had come to Montoe because he considered “Mr. Robere F: Williams to be the most dangerous person in America.” Another proclaimed: *If the fight for civil rights is o remain nonviolent, we must be successful in Montoe. What happens here il determine the course aken in many other communitis throughout the South.” ‘Williams welcomed the Freedom Riders warmly but had a similar under- scanding of the stakes. “Lsaw it firs as 2 challenge,” he recalled, “buc I alo saw ie s an opportunity to show that what King and them were preaching was bullshic” Tiwo weeks of icketing at the Union County Courthouse grew progessively more perilous for the Freedom Riders. Crowds of hoseile white onlaokers grew larger and larger. Finally, on Sunday afiemoon, August 28, a mob of several thousand furious white people atacked the approximately thirey demonstrators, badly injuring many of them. Local police arrested the bleeding protestors. In his classic memoir, The Making of Black Revolutionaries, Forman lxer called this iot his “moment of death” ‘and“a nightmare Ishall never forger” To the consternation of SCLC, the nonviolent erusade swifly deteriorated into mob violence. Throughout the community, white vigilantes attacked black citzens and even fired fficen shots into the home of former mayor J. Ray Shute, white moderate who had befriended Williams. Authe height of hisviolent chaos, a white married couple entered the black u community for reasons that are unclear and drove staight into an angey black mobs milling near Williamss house. “There was hundreds of niggers chere,” the white woman stated, “and they were armed, they were ready for war” Black residents under the impression that the demonstrators downtown were being beaten an pethaps slaughtered, threatened to kill the white couple. Williams, though busy preparing o defend his home, rescued the two whites from the mob and led them into his house, where they remained for about two hours. White authoritiesater charged Williamsandseveralother peoplewith kidnapping, althoughthe white couple met two police officrs on their way home and did not report their alleged abduction. The woman later conceded that “at the time, 1 wasnit even thinking sbout being kidnapped... [ Tlhe papers,the publicity and all that seuf was what brought n that kidnapping mess.” Duringa long night of acial error, Williams slung a machine gun over his shoulder and walked several miles with his wife and two small sons o where Julian Mayfeld waited with a car. The Williams family fled first to New York Gity, then to Canada, then on 1o Cuba to escape the hordes of FBI agents who combed the countryside in scarch of them. One of the agents assigned to search locally for Williams reported. his frustrations to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: “Subject has become something of a ‘John Brown' to Negtoes around Monroe and they wil do anyehing for him.” “The FBI dragnet never snared Williams, but it did not take Hoover long o hear from him. Every Friday night from 11:00 to midnight on Radio Havana, Wil- liams hosted *Radio Free Diie,” a program that could be heard from 1961 to 1964 as far away as New York and Los Angeles. From Cuba, Williams continued o edic The Crusader for circulation that eventually grew to forey thousand. In 1962, his ook Negroes With Guns, published from Cuba, became the single most important intellectual influence on Huey I Newton, soon to found the Black Panther Party in Oakdand. Copies of The Crusader raveled down the Mississippi back roads with SNCC organizers: “this leaflet i being distributed by SNCCand COFO [ Council o Federated Organizations] workers among US. Negroes,” the Mississippi State Sovercignty Commission complained in the spring of 1964. Later that year, when SNCC began o veeraway from nonviolence, members cited Williams approvinglyin the fierce nternal debates. Asblackactivistsbegantorejecteven the tacicalpretenscofnonviolence, the influence of Robert Williams continued to spread. “Armed self.defense s fact of fe in black communities—north and south—despite the pronouncements of the leadership.” a Norch Carolina accivist wrote to Williams. Long before Stokely ‘Carmichal and Wille Ricks led the chants of “Black Power” that riveted national media attention in the summer of 1966, most elements of that ambiguous slogan already were in place. “Your doctrine of self-defense set the stage for the acceptance of the Deacons For Defense and Justice,” Lawrence Henry told Williams in the spring of 1966, “As quiet as t i being kepr, the Black man is swinging away from King and adopting your titfor-tat philosophy. mssinflucncewasnotlimitedtotheSouth. “Aslamcertainyourealize, 2 Richard Gibson, editor of Now magazine in New York, wrote to Williams in 1965, “Malcolms removal from the scene makes you the senior spokesman for Afro- American milicants” Life magazine reported in 1966 that Williams' “picture is prominently displayed in extremist hauntsin the bigeity ghettos.” Clayborne Carson names Williams asone ofwocentralinfluences—theother being Malcolm X—onthe 1966 formation of the Black Panther Party For Self-Defense in Oakland, “the mose widely known black militant politcal organization of the lare 1960s.” The Central Incelligence Agency (CIA) exaggerated considerably in 1969 when it reported that ‘Williams *has long been the deologicalleader of the Black Panther Party” Itis closer 0 say that the Panthers were *a logical development” from the philosophy of Williams, as Reginald Major asserted in his 1971 book, A Panther Iy Black Car According to Williams, he “alked to Bobby Seale and Ms. [Kathicen] Cleaver by elephone when | was in Affica” in 1968 and the leadership “asked me 10 become Forcign Ministerofthe Panthers At that momene, Williamshad alreadybeen named president.in-exileof two ofthe most influcial revolutionary nationalist groups: the Revolutionary Action Movement, which the CIA belived t be ‘the most dangerous ofall the Black Power organizations,” and the Detroit-based Republic of New Africa. “Despite hisoverseas activiies”the CIA reported in 1969, “Williams has managed to becoming an outstanding figure, possibly the oustanding figure, in the black extremist movement in the United Staes.” Even though he becamefriends with Che Guevaraand Fidel Castro himself, ‘Williams grew uncasy in Cuba: he yearned to recurn home. As the Sovietsrings on the Cuban revolution shortened, Williams resisted pressue to make his own poli conform to the Soviet line. T am under constant attack by the [Communist Party of the United Staes],” Williams wrote o a frend in the mid-1960s. “They are trying to cut off my faciltes here in Cuba. One would chink T am Hidler and Wall Strcee combined.” An FBIinformantas early as 1962 stated that Williams *has scubbed his oes” with Cuban Communists through his ervicsm of [the] Communist Paty for barring Negroes from leadership’” and that he ‘may not b able to regain his footing” “The Stalinists were “getting worse than the crackers in Montoe,” Williams com- plained in 1964. “Things are sbout to the stage when I had to leave Monroe in a hurey” Williams persuaded Castro to let him travel to North Viewam in 1964, where he met Ho Chi Minh and wrote antiwar propaganda aimed at African Americ can soldier. In 1965, the Williams family relocated to Beijing, where Wiliams was *lonized and feted by top Pekingleaders,” according to CIA intelligence repores. The ‘Williams family dined with Mao Toe-tung and moved in the highest circles of the Chinese governmen for three years. Like the Black Power movement iself, as ‘Williams got farther away from his roots in the South he sometimes drified into apocalypric nonsense. His 1967 essay, “The Potential ofa Minority Revolution,” for example, depicted a scenario in which black saboteurs and guerrilla enclaves could bring down the U.S. government. Though Williams had been one of the best organizers in the black freedom movement,hisisolation from any I made him vulnerable o the same frusrations and delusions that plagued the restof al constiten 5 the movement in the last half of he 19605 T the late 19605, when the Nixon administration moved toward opening diplomaticrelations with China, Williams barteredhisalmost exclusive knowledge of the Chinese government for safe passage home and a Ford Foundation-sponsored post a the Center for Chinese Studies a the University of Michigan. Not that the entire federal apparatus was happy to welcome him home: the Internal Security Division of the Deparument of Justice observed that “Williams could be the person to il the role of national leader of the black extremists. We should offet atcempus by him to assume such a position.” Williams, however, wrote to a riend that * lot of peopleare going to b surprised afer my arrival not o find me ighting for leadership the way many othersare doing” Returning o family tes and local activism, Wiliams spent the last twenty-seven years of his life in the small, troutfishing village of Baldwin in western Michigan and died on October 15, 1996, Aweek afier his death, Rosa Parks climbed slowly into a church pulpic in Monroe, North Carolina. Beneath her la the body of Robert E Williams,clad in a gray suic given to him by Mao Tse-tung and draped with a black, red, and green Pa African flag. Parks cold te congregation that she and those who marched with Mardin Luther KingJr in Alabama had always admired Williams *for his courage and his commitmenttofreedom. The work that he id should go downin historyand never be forgotten.” Her presencein that pulpit, nearly inexplicable when viewed through the waditional narrative of “the civl rights movement,” demonstrates in almost poctic fashion that historians should reexamine the relationship bewween civil ights” and “Black Power.” Our vision of the postwar African American freedom movemen prior 101965 as one charactrized solely and inevitably by nonviolent “ivi ights” protest obscures the full complexity of racial politics. It idealizes black history, downplays the oppression of jim crow society, and even understaes the achievements of Aftican American resistance. Worse stll, our cinematic “cvil rights movement” blurs the racial dilemmas that follow us into the venty-frs century. “The lfe of Robert Williams underlines many aspects of the ongoing black freedom struggle—the decisive racial significance of World War I the impact of the cold war on the black freedom struggle, the centrality of questions of sexuality and genderinracialpolitics and the historical presence ofa evolutionary Caribbean. But foremostitestifies o the extent o which, throughout World War I and the posowar years,there existed among African Americans a cureent of militancy—a curren that included the willingness to defend home and commanity by force. This facet of African American life lived in tension and in tandem with the compelling moral example of nonviolent direct action. No doub those who began to chant “Black Power” n the mid-1960s felt thatslogan with an ugency specifc to theirimmediate circumstances. But then, as now, many aspects of its meaning endure as legacies from carlier African American struggles. Above the desk where Williams completed his memoirs just before his death, there sl hangs an ancient rifle—a gift, he said, from his grandmother. Negroes With Guns: excerpts Chapter 3 The Struggle for Militancy in the NAACP Uncil my statement hit the national newspapers the national office of the NAACP had paid litle attention to us. We had received lide help from them in our struggles and our hour of need. Now they lost no time. The very next morn- ing I received a long distance telephone call from the nacional office wanting to Know if 1 had been quoted coreely. told them that I had. They said the NAACP Wwas ot an organization of violence. I explained that I knew that it was not an organizaion of violence. They said that T had made violent statements. I replied that T made these statements as Robere Williams, not as the National Association he Advancement of Colored People. They said that because I was an offical of the organization anything that T said would be considered NAACP policy, thac e were 100 close together. 1 asked them why if we were so close together they hadsit come to my rescue all this time when I had been the unemployed vietm of the Klan's cconomic pressure and when | had had all of my insurance canceled as poor insurance risk. 1 asked them why they didit then consider our closeness Suspension, Distortion and Re-clection In the nest few hours Roy Wilkins of the NAACP suspended me from of- fice. 1 didiclearn about it from the national offce. 1 first heard of it when Southern radio stations announced and kept repeating every thirty minutes that the NAACP had suspended me for advocaring violence because this was not a means for the so- lution of the race problem and that the NAACP was against Negroes using violence a5 2 means of self-defense Our Union County NAACP was one of the few interracial branches in the South. We had some white pacifst members, and when I was suspended they senta telegeam to the national office sating that they were white Southerners and that they were pacifiss, but they protested my suspension on the geound that they understood the problems in the community and that the national offce did nor. “This telegram was never made public by the NAACE. And nor a single paper ever printed the face that ours was an intereacial branch and that even Southern white pacifises supported my postion. Nevertheles, this all developed into a national debate. We found out that there was o provision in the NAACP constitution to justify or authorize this hypocritical action by Roy Wilkins. I demanded some sort of hearing. Wilkins turned the marter over to the NAACP’ paternalistic Committce on Branches, and in New York City on June 3, 1959, they conducted what tumed out to be a ial where [ fought the suspension. The commirtee ruled that I was to be suspended for 5 six months time, after which I would automarically be reinstated L didn' think of doing anything more about the suspensions there was a more important matter at hand. As a resul of the tral I was more convinced than ever that one of our greatest and most immediate needs was better communication within the race. The real Afro-American struggle was merely a disjointed network of pockes of resistance and the shameful thing about it was that Negroes were rly- ing upon the white mans inaceurate reports as their sources of information about these isolated seruggls. 1 went home and concentrated all of my ffores into devel- oping a newsleter that would in accurate and no uncertzin terms inform both Ne- groes and whites of Afro-American liberation scruggles taking place in the United States and about the parcicularstruggle we were constandy ighting in Monroe. The firs Lsue of The Crusader came off the mimeograph machine June 26, 1950. “Then at the las minue I decided to appeal the committee’s decision to the NAACP’s 50ch National Convention which was meeting in New York that July. The national offce found it necessary t issue a special convention pamphlet avcacking me. This pamphlet tried to confuse my demand that Negroes meet vio- lence with violence as a means of self-defense with the advocacy of ynch lav: In its own way the national office contributed to the erroncous impression played up by the racst pres that [ was agicating for race war and the indiscriminate slaughter of white people. My suspension was upheld by the convention delegates, many of whom cicher fet o were pressured into seeing the vote a5 a question of publicly sup- porting or disavowing the NAACP national leadership. But on the real issue at hand, delegate sentiment forced the nacional leadership to support the concept of selfdefense. The preamble to the resolutions passed by that convention read, * we do not deny but reafirm the right of an individual and collective self-defense againse unlawful assauls” While I was suspended, the people in my branch voted to make my wie president to serve in my place. And at the end of the six monchs, instead of going back into office automatically, T held an elction because I didt want the NAACP national office to think that they were doing me any special favor. We had the elec- tion and I was re-elected unanimously “The nacional office of the NAACP was determined o keep within the good graces of a lot of the influential Northern whites who were disturbed by our milicancy. They mainaained an indifferent aticude to our branch. We had a char- ter and that was all. We were unable to secue asistance from them in any of our school integration cases and our sit-in cases. In 1960 we sarted a stin campaign. We became the thirteenth town in North Carolina to stae sit-in demonstrations. Though the NAACP wasn't aking norice, ou sitins proved that self-defense and non-violence could be successfully combined. There was les violence in the Montoe st-ins than in any other sitins in the South. In other communities there were Negroes who had their skulls frac- tured, but not a single demonstrator was even spa upon during our scins. We % had less violence because we had shown the willingness and readiness to fight and defend ourselves. We didt appear on the sreets of Monroe s beggars depending upon the charity and generosity of white supremacists. We appeared as people with serengeh, and it was to the mutual advantage of all parties concerned that peaceful relations be maintained. While the demonstrations were taking place [ was arrested and fnally sen- tenced to serve thirey days on the chain gang. The NAACP was supposed to handle my case. They handled it up to the State Supreme Court, but then they dropped my case from appeal without teling me and with only few days left in which to file an appeal. | discovered this through the newspapers because my case had been consolidated with that of seven students from Chapel Hill, N.C. The newspapers listed the names of the defendants whose NAACP lawyers had filed appeals and 1 was the only one in the group whose name did not appear. 1 appealed to the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee. They took my case up and filed an appeal 0 the U.S. Supreme Court “A Letter from De Boss” All this did not mean that the NAACP national offce was shore on ad- vice, Whill they did not feelresponsible enough to take the appeal 1 higher courts, they did feel responsible enough to send me a leteer upon my rewurn from Cuba in the summer of 1960. I subscquently made owo trips to Cuba My experiences in Monroe and with the NAACP which had resulted in launching The Crusader were also sharpening my awaeness of the suruggles of Negroes in every part of the world, how they were treated, their victories and their defears. Tt was clear from the frsc days that Afro-Cubans were part of the Cuban revolution on basis of complete equality and my tips confirmed this fact. A Negro, for example, was head of the Cuban armed forces and no one could hide that fact from us here in America. To me this revolution was real thing, not one of those phony South American palace revolutions. There was a real drive o bring social justice to all the Cubans, including the black ones. Beginning late in 1959 1 had begun to run facrual articles about Cuba in The Crusader, pointing up the racial equality that existed there. The artiles scem to have sirred up the national office for they sent me a leter which included statements such as these: .- T wonder, however, whether you are fully aware of the dangers and disadvantages of the course of action you seem to favor. | have followed closcly the evens in Cuba in recent months and in particular, Dr. Castr’s visit to the United Nations this all. Regardless of the merits of the Cuban cause I was grearly disturbed by the frequent show of insincerity which, 1 believe, should give you food for thought before you find yourself used as just another pawn in the present unfortunate feud bevween Cuba and our country *... Iuis a callous interference in a native American problem and should be recognized as such by anyone in a responsible position of leadership in the . American Negro movement .. the present Cuban attempts to endear themselves to American Ne- groes are obviously caused by ulrerior morives. (Let me just ask you how the Ameri- an Negro tourist would feel in Cuba at the constant chant of ‘Caba s, Yanqui not) .. Are you willing to forsake the important support of that section of the people who are equally opposed to suppression of Negro rights in our country? “.". Does not the unforaunate example of the grear American Negro singer Paul Robeson' show you the dangers and mistakes of the road which you seem to be choosing? What has Paul Robeson with all his greatness done for the American Negro in his present struggle for equality: The answer, regrettable s it s, must be: Nothing “These excerps were reprinted in The Crusader and replcd to in this way: “Only a fool o a mercenary hypocrite could muster the gall to call a nation and its great leader insincere in dealing with the caprive blacks of North America when in the course of heir daily lives they display the greatest measue of racial equality and social jusice in the world today. It s cerainly a firse magnivude ruism that social justice sarts at home and spreads abroad. In past months I have twice been o Cuba and there is nothing insincere about my being made to feel that Twas a member of the human race for the frst time in my lie. If hisis America's idea of insincerity then heaven help this nation to become insincere like Fidel Cas- 0 and Free Cuba in granting persons of African descent entrance inco the human “As for my being ‘used as a pawn in the struggle of Cuba against imperi- alist and racist North America, I prefer to be on the side of right than on the side of Jim Crow and oppression. T prefer to be used as an instrumen to convey the truth of a people who tespect the ights of man, rather than to be used as an Uncle “Tom whitewasher of black oppression and injustice and an apologis for Americ hypocrisy. Cubas aversion for Americds inhumanity to man is not an interference ina native American problem.” I is common knowledge that the master ace of the: “free world"is out to export North American manufactured racism. Racism in the USA. is as much a world problem as was Nazism. IF the U.S.A. is to be the only nation exempt from the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations, then that august body is a party to the great tansgressions against America's captive people. 1, for one, refus to remain sient and cooperate with the very force that is secking after my destruction. “The racists in America are the most brutal people on eardh. It is fool- hardy for an oppressed Afro-American to take the auitude that we should keep this life-death struggle a family affir. We are the oppressed, it is only natural for us 1o air our grievances at home and abroad. This race fight in the US.A. is no more a fight to be fought just by Americans than is the fight for black liberacion o be conducted by colored only. Any struggle for freedom in the world today affects the stability of the whole society of man. Why would you make our struggle an excep- N “Iam notafraid of alienacing white friends of our liberation movemen. If they really belive in fecdom they will not resent deviation from the old worn path that has led s in fruitlesscircles. 1fchey are insincere they are no more than Trojan horses inflrating our ranks to strike us a treacherous, nefarious blow on behalf of those and that which they pretend to detest. For if they resent our becoming ruly liberated, they will detest us for not following their misguidance and skillful subterfuge designed to prevent our arival to the promised land. They speak much of tolerance, but they display unlimited intolerance toward those Afro-Americans who efuse to become their puppets and yes-man Uncle Toms It suange thae | am asked how a Negro American tourist would feel in Cuba hearing the constant chan of ‘Cuba Si, Yanqui No!” No one has bothered 0 ask how it fecls o constanly face “White Only’ signs. These signs mean ‘White yes, Colored no!” No one has acked me how it feels 0 be marched under guard wich felons along a public steeet