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

United States was having." s~ Exasperated, Thurnrond again asked if Williams "had taken
any steps to inspire or foster a black revolution in this country while you were within the
country or without the country?"
No. Not to inspire black revolution, but I did do everything I could to inspire
black men to defend their homes, their women and children when there is a
breakdown of law, and I always specified in everything I wrote and everything I
said that this was the last resort when the law fails to protect our people, when the
law fails to protect our women and children, and I hoped to inspire black men to
defend themselves, their families, and to defend their communities against
aggression, and this is what I ~vocated . 3g
To the exclusion of all other interests (including the Communist Party), Williams was
totally absorbed with his own sense of mission during the proceedings . This self-
involvement matched a pattern he had already established in dealing with the press and
the government . He was loyal only to the cause of challenging white supremacy when
and where he found it : beyond this immediate cause, he seemed oblivious to political
ideology or social activism .
Through this process of dialectic exchange, a composite of Williams' beliefs
gradually evolved . "I see self-determination not as just a separation of the races, but I sa
it as the right of a people to determine their own destiny," he explained. "I think people
who are oppressed have a right to relieve themselves in whatever measure. I think it
should be legal if possible, but if they can't do it legally 1 think it is the American way to
do it with violence ." Williams observed : "If I had been white in America I never would
have been hounded and harassed and treated the way I have been tasted . And I resent
3'U.S . Senate Judiciary Hearings, 11 .
3gU.S . Senate Judiciary Hearings, 12.
217