3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

allowed both RAM and the RNA to use his name . Allowing these groups to use his name
again put Williams on the radar soars of agencies such as the FBI, Justice Department,
and CIA. Although he later resigned, and despite the fact that (according to his
testimony) he was active neither in RAM nor the RNA, the government shadowed
Williams' every move ther+eafter.~ 3
RAM was a Detroit-based, self-styled fusion of the Nation of Islam and the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that "favored" Williams and his
notions of armed self-defense . Max Stanford ofRAM called for a self-defense-oriented
"National Youth Movement," or "Black Guard," to "protect the true interest of Black
America" by "cleans[ing] itself of the Black Nation's enemies."~ The group made a
media splash in 1965 when it bungled plans to blow up the nation's most symbolic
monuments, including the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell .
Like the Provincial Government of the African-American Captive Nation, the
RNA sought to create a separate political state for blacks within the United States by
occupying northern cities and the southern Black Belt. Strong neither in numbers nor in
resources, the RNA came into existence on March 31, 1968, when over two hundred
black people from all over the United States met at the Twenty-Grand Motel in Detroit to
sign a "Declaration of Independence:' Its leaders included, among others, Betty
33U.S . Senate Judiciary Hearings, 10, 18, 29, 44-45 . Williams claimed no affiliation ;
however, his papers collected at the Bentley Historical Library contain a number of items
from his personal files related to both RAM and the RNA.
~Max Stanford, "Calling All Black People," undated pamphlet, published by the
Black Liberation (RAM) Party, Box 3, "Republic of New Africa" Folder 1, Robert F.
Williams Collection, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan .
215