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

eight-year-old boy for Williams' son, three white men "stomped him"and "almost killed
him;' according to Williams . The following day, black high school students conner+ed
some white toughs cruising in their neighborhood and attacked them . One student hurled
a brick into the face of a white tough, which prompted a white Freedom Rider named
Thompson to intervene, shielding the white rider from the black youths . Williams later
challenged Thompson, who chastised Williams and his followers for "dropping to their
level" and being "brutes" like the riders . Williams, furious about the attack on the little
boy, responded:
Thompson, let me tell you one thing . . . if you can't stand to see a white man hurt,
if you can't stand to see white blood flow, you better get your suitcase and get out
of here . . . I'm going to tell you one thing : the next time you jump in front of a car
to protect a white man who is attacking us, you know what we are going to do? . .
. we going to shoot so many holes through you going to look like a screen wire . .
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Monroe carne under intense scrutiny by those in the civil rights movement who distrusted
his angry rhetoric and his decree of self-defense . '"That Rob Williams and his adherents
arc brave and admirable people, I have no doubt," assured one critic . "But I do doubt that
they are revolutionaries . For the violent and destructive way in which they would counter
their opponents . . . is none other than the violent and destructive way that the
reactionaries of all ages have countered their opponents ; and it has little or no chance of
~Williams, interviewed by James Mosby, July 22, 1970, transcript, Ralph J . 8unche
Oral History Collection (Civil Rights Documentation Project), Moorland-Spingarn
Research Center, Howard University .
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