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

counsel and to pay court expenses for those remaining in Monroe who needed aid .
Conrad Lynn was the group's chief legal advisor. Dr. A.E. Penry, former vicx-president
of the Union County NAACP, chaired the committee, which counted Norman Mailer and
W . E . B . Du Bois among its ranks.
After he fled Monroe, the United States government targeted Williams for
character assassination . FBI wanted posters, tacked in post offices around the country,
portrayed Williams as a criminal and fugitive from justice. They described him as
"heavily armed and dangerous" and diagnosed him as mad. Detailed (and inaccurate)
descriptions of scars depicted Williams as a stereotypical, razor-fighting black man . The
government did its best to discredit Williams in the public eye . Such vilification
completed his evolution "from reformer to radical to revolutionary."~'
In Cuba, Fidel Castro granted Williams and his family political asylum as
"refugees from the United States," and the Cuban government became responsible for
their welfare . They survived on an allowance of 300 to 400 pesos each month . The
government also provided them with a house and car. Williams roceived such privileged
treatment as a result of his meeting Castro the previous year, when he had accompanied a
group of black newspapermen to Cuba. Officials welcomed him then and encouraged
him to stay, but Williams wanted to "go home ." Never did he entertain notions of
expadiation or defection .
'The U.S . Justice Department, in collarboration with Monroe Chief of Police A. A .
Mauney, released 250, 000 circulars describing Williams as "schizophrenic :' Williams,
of sound mind, had never undergone psychiatric evaluation ; nor had he ever been
diagnosed with schizophrenia . See Williams, Negroes With Guns, 91-92: see also
Truman Nelson, `"fhe Resistant Spirit," in Negroes With Guns, 18 .
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