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

hesitated to violate% Many felt that King's efforts in Albany flopped, and that
nonviolent direct action had failed . King did not get the media event for which he had
hoped . Meanwhile, Robert Williams had been for+ad to leave the country . On
September S, 1961, King received a note from a J.W . Oakley, Sr. editor of~
Centrcville [Alabama] ~, which read, "I see were [sic] that bearded Monr+oe Negro is
on the lam . Wishing to hear you were the same."~
As "that bearded Monroe Negro" continued from abroad to enjoin his friends and
neighbors to prepare to defend themselves, other Afro-Americans stood up for themselves
by asserting their right to self-defense . Unlike Williams, no one publicized or celebrated
their cases, and few people outside of their immediate areas would learn of their
individual ordeals, but it was these personal moments of courage that inspired activists to
continue their struggles, and that served notice to white Southerners that sizable cracks
had appeared in the monolith of white supremacy.
Other cracks would take longer to appear. For example, self-defense took place
within carefully prescribed gender roles . Local black women, such as Williams' wife
Mabel, learned how to shoot, but Williams, by his own testimony, "kept them out of most
of it." The women volunteered and "wanted to fight," but Williams and his male cadre
insisted that they "stand by" in order to "render medical services" and to "help organize ."
%Corctta Scott King provides a good synopsis of the Albany movement in her
autogiography My Life With Martin Luther King . Jr. rev. ed. (New York : Henry Holt &
Co ., 1969), 187-192 .
"Oakley, letter to King, September S, 1961, Box 7, I, 47, Martin Luther King
Collection, Department of Special Collations, Boston University .
74