Part 2: The Papers of Robert F. Williams

The "Black Power Movement", Part 2, presents in 26 reels of microfilm the papers of Robert F. Williams, who “became one of the most influential African American radicals of his time, primarily for his advocacy of what he called ‘armed self reliance’ during the late 1950s and the 1960s.”

A biography of his career is entitled Radio Free Dixie. He was forced to flee to Cuba in 1961, where he wrote his 1962 book, Negroes with Guns, “a decisive influence on the Black Panthers and a generation of young African American radicals.” In 1971 Williams testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws. Just before his death on Oct. 15, 1996, he completed the draft of his autobiography, “While God Lay Sleeping.”