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

Fnrstrated with the inequity of southern justice, Williams lashed out in 1959 after
becoming ensnarled in two frustrating legal battles . The first trial involved a white hotel
guestwho had kicked a black maid down a flight of stairs for disturbing his sleep . The
judge dropped all charges against the man, who failed to appear for his court date . The
second trial proved even more exasperating . Williams angrily responded to the acquittal
of a white man accused of attempting to rape an eight-month-pregnant black woman,
Mary Ruth Reid . In an impassioned speech, he declared that blacks should "meet
violence with violence" :
We cannot rely on the law . We can get no justice under the present system. If we
feel that injustice is done, we must then and there on the spot be prepared to inflict
punishment on these people. Since the federal government will not bring a halt to
the lynching and since the so-called courts lynch our people legally, if it's
necessary to stop lynching with lynching, then we must be willing to resort to that
method . We must meet violence with violence .33
His fiery rhetoric garnered the attention of not only the national media, but also Martin
Luther King, Jr., who challenged Williams' call to violence in 1959 .
In a "debate" published in Liberation magazine in 1959, King responded to
Williams' ire, which included personal charges against King and his brand of
nonviolence. In writing this article, King benefited from the editorial assistance of
Hayard Rustin, who helped him to articulate his attitudes toward self-defense . King took
a stand against Williams by attempting to rectify the paradoxical role of nonviolence
within a possibly violent movement ; he did so by de-emphasizing self-defense, which cut
~3Williams, quoted in "The Robert Williams Case," Crisis 66 n 6 (June-July 1959) :
326 .
`See note 12 .
46