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

When juxtaposed with the ideas of Martin Luther King or Roy Wilkins, Williams'
ideas made the militancy of the SCLC and NAACP seem moderate . To the civil rights
movement, Willisrns contributed (in the eyes of most whites) an unpleasant alternative to
the peaceable strategy of someone like King, and made King's plans and ideas sam more
acceptable to the majority of Americans a2 Furthermore, King's verbal sparring with
Williams forced the SCLC minister to sharpen his own understanding of nonviolence and
its role in the movement .
He was a well-known figure in the inner city, particularly in the latter 1960's when
revolution seemed possible to many black nationalists . Entrepreneurs capitalized on
Williams' stature (and contributed to it) by marketing merchandise embossed with his
image . "Power Posters," a Philadelphia company, offered posters of Malcolm X, Stokely
Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Muhammad Ali, and LeRoi Jones, but Williams topped the
inventory list, and the firm's magazine advertisements featured a photograph not of these
other celebrities, but of Williams, holding a cocked pistol .ej
He foreshadowed the black radicals of the 1960's who answered his call to arms .
Militants like Malcolm X, Huey Newton, and Eldridge Cleaver looked to the past for
precedent and stumbled upon Williams as a man willing to defend his civil rights with
sz With Malcolm X, Williams "provided a sharp cutting edge to the black struggle .
They kept the pressure on civil-rights leaders to be bolder, more militant," according to
Harvard Sitkoff. "Simultaneously, their radicalism made the movement's leadership and
objectives appear responsible and moderate . And they scared some white leaders into
accepting the civil rights demands as the only effative way to avert potential disaster."
Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality . 1954-1992 rev . ed . (New York : Hill & Wang,
1993), 143.
g3For example, sa LI~g,4II 9 n 2 (Febnrary 1969) : 11 .
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