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

Americans alike in a way that Robert Williams' pronouncements had not. His name was
Malcolm X.
In the late 1950's, Williams' position had seemed incongruent with prevailing
sentiments within the civil rights movement ; however, by the early 1960's, the social and
political climate of the South had changed, and Williams' radical ideas did not seem so
far-fetched . Activists had been beaten and bloodied, and nonviolence, for many, did not
hold the appeal it once had . Younger activists, fresh to the struggle, seemed especially
open to his ideas, and accounts of Williams' influence abound . For example, in 1%1,
after the murder of Herbert Lee, a young activist in McComb, Mississippi, local blacks
appealed to the Department of Justice and FBI with no results. Learning of what
Williams had done in Monroe, they formed a "defense guard," and publicized its
existence . They had no further trouble with voter registration . `"that is the lesson of
Monroe," claimed Conrad Lynn, Williams' attorney s° That same year, James Forman of
SNCC was visiting Williams in Monroe the night he was accused of kidnapping .
Williams made a tremendous impact on Forman, who would devote over fifty pages of
his autobiography to Williams and the Monroe story .'
e°Morris Renek, "Portrait of a `Wretched' Man : Robert Williams--Wanted by the
FBI," The New Re blic (Septem5er 30, 1%7) : 12, Box 4, "Articles Concerning Robert
Williams--1967" Folder, Robert F. Williams Collection, Bentley Historical Library,
University of Michigan .
g~See James Forman, The Makingof Black Revolutionaries (Seattle: Open Hand
Publishing, 1985), 158-211 .
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