Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power

by Timothy B. Tyson

Book Overview

This book tells the remarkable story of Robert F. Williams--one of the most influential black activists of the generation that toppled Jim Crow and forever altered the arc of American history. In the late 1950s, as president of the Monroe, North Carolina, branch of the NAACP, Williams and his followers used machine guns, dynamite, and Molotov cocktails to confront Klan terrorists. Advocating "armed self-reliance" by blacks, Williams challenged not...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807849235
• ISBN13: 9780807849231
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

One Of the Greatest, Least Known Americans of any Color

Essential reading for anyone that wants to understand the post-slavery "free" society racism and oppression suffered by African-Americans in the south and in America. Robt. F. Williams stood by his principles and dedicated himself to the day to day struggles of the common man, which put him in opposition with the KKK, The United States Government and the NAACP. In response to his actions in saving a white couple from harm in a black neighborhood in a time of racial upheavel, he ended up labeled as a dangerous and violent schizophrenic and on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He sucessfully escaped the U.S. and soon found himself living in Cuba as an esteemed guest of Fidel Castro where his radio show "Radio Free Dixie" was broadcast at a signal that carried it to the Canadian border. Later, he went to Vietnam, as an esteemed guest of Ho Chi Minh (who credited Robt. F. Williams newsletter as being influencial in the North Vietnamese urban warfare strategy) and later, lived in China as an esteemed guest of Mao Zedung... only to return to the U.S. on a chartered flight as an high level consultant to the CIA, FBI and the Nixon Administration. Williams' insights into the politics, personality of it's leaders and culture served as the most primary and highly valued information for the Nixon administrations centerpiece legacy, Foreign Policy, with emphasis on China. The Value of Williams resulted in his being pardoned for all prior actions and all charges dropped. Amazingly, this man died of more or less natural causes. All of the above, makes Robt. F. Williams one of the greatest freedom fighters and American's and human beings who ever lived. Timothy Tyson, the author, strikes the perfect chord in his story telling, which is factual, well-researched and devoid of abrasive opinions. Much like a holocaust narrative, he aims not for hyperbole or dramatization rather, a re-telling of the facts, all of which serve to make this a book that is written at a perfect pitch for the life and times of Robt. F. Williams. Although this review touches on the major aspects of the case, it barely scratches the surface of the information contained therin. I found that it was difficult to read more than 3 pages without the urge to jot something down, reflect in contemplation, or call someone to relate something that seemed beyond belief and yet, unknown in popular culture.

Required reading in modern American history

Tyson's book focuses a long-overdue spotlight on the career of Robert F. Williams, an overlooked civil rights pioneer who indelibly stamped and shaped the movement during the '50s, '60s and beyond, but who has received precious little exposure, discussion or credit from the mainstream media. "Radio Free Dixie" goes a long way to setting the record straight.The compelling thesis of "Radio Free Dixie" is that the civil rights struggle in the South featured a strong element of armed resistance against the forces of intimidation, led by the Klan, but legitimized by the legal structure of the southern states. Williams, from an early age, rejected the pacifist ideas and practices of Martin Luther King, arguing that blacks would never win their rights, much less any measure of respect until they were willing to demonstrate a willingness to defend themselves with arms. While most of the press and his supposed allies (King included) attempted to portray him as a violent revolutionary bent on overthrowing the government, Tyson convincingly shows that Williams was in fact a true believer in the U.S. constitution and that he never advocated initiating violence. Nor did his aggressive stance come from nowhere. Tyson shows that Williams' own family had a long history of determined and nonpacifist resistance, as did many other black families throughout the South.This is also a stirring story of one community's fight against racism. The white community of Williams' Monroe, N.C. did everything it could to stop his efforts to integrate the town, but despite this, Williams built an extraordinary local chapter of the NAACP that relentlessly exposed the injustices daily heaped on blacks, even when the NAACP itself was refusing to recognize the activities of the chapter.Tyson's book deserves accolades for exposing another layer of the complex history of the civil rights movement. The book is well-written and researched and full of genuine, yet balanced respect for its subject. A must-read for students of the civil rights movement and those searching for a real profile in courage.

The real civil rights struggle, and BEAUTIFULLY written

This is the best book on the civil rights movement that I have ever read. A gripping story of one man's battle for freedom, its lyrical prose and haunting images gave me a whole new understanding of the struggle for interracial democracy in America. Most of the other histories I have read focus on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the familiar story that runs from Montgomery to Memphis. Here we see how it really was on the local level, and the politically complex and perilous situation that black activists faced in the South. I was there, and this book really captures it. The writing, too, is poetic, riveting, and sometimes quite beautiful. Line by line, this is one of the best books on any subject that I have ever read--it reads like a great novel, but it persuades because the research is so compelling. If this book doesn't win the National Book Award for history, I don't know who they are going to give it to--it's that good.

two photos

Two Images move the reader throughout Radio Free Dixie - the book cover with the young Robert Williams, cigar in mouth and gun in hand, ready for what comes and the picture of him and his wife a few years before he died, looking like Frederick Douglass in his old age, if not serene, then banking the fire of his anger at the history of black America in his lifetime with the experience of 30 years of seeing the world as an outsider and understanding the world and himself better. Tyson's book is a tour de force, written compellingly and with a passion borne from seeing the armed aspect of the American civil rights movement and what it could mean for change. William's journey is like some made-up pilgramage from rural North Carolina to the centers of third world socialism and then, amazingly for a man on the FBI's most wanted list, quietly returning to the US and living his life out in rural quiet with his family. It is a book for all those of us who were there in those days to read and for all of those who weren't - to realize the effects of class, color, and social standing inside the civil rights movements. Think of what the country might have been with Robert Williams instead of Bayard Rustin as the most visible early leader of black civil rights.A book that not only fills in missing history but changes your sense of what history really was.

Fantastic! Changes our understanding of Black Power.

Tim Tyson's Radio Free Dixie is an exciting and important contribution to the ever-expanding literature on the civil rights movement, in general, and Black Power, in particular. This is no old-school yawner history text. The book, while meticulously researched and footnoted, is expertly written with a dramatic flair that is usually reserved for non-academic writing. I cannot recommend it higher.Robert Williams, a WWII vet, organized a largely working-class chapter of the NAACP in Monroe, NC, during the mid-1950s. This chapter, which also advocated "armed self-reliance," went against the grain of the usually middle-class NAACP which preferred a measured march through established institutions to the confrontational politics of direct action. Behind Williams's leadership, the Monroe chapter challenged the local Jim Crow system with varying degrees of success. In 1961, Williams was forced to flee the country in the face of trumped up kidnapping charges. He headed South to Cuba with his family where he moved in the revolutionary circles of Castro and beamed a subversive radio show which detailed the injustices of American racism at the US mainland. Ultimately, Williams left Cuba and travelled to Maoist China where he mingled with another set of revolutionaries. Later, Williams would return to the USA to teach and live in Michigan where he died last year.Besides elevating Williams to his rightful place in civil rights history alongside Martin, Malcolm, Ella, and others, Tyson's book challenges the notion that Black Power and armed self-defense emerged only after 1965. Rather, Tyson points out that the roots of Black Power stretch further back and often worked "in tandem and in tension" with non-violent direct action. This is an important reconceptualization of a critical era in American history.In short, you should buy this compelling book and read it... twice! It has all the drama of a hollywood movie. It will challenge your assumptions about the movement and introduce you to a tragically neglected figure in America's continuing struggle for racial justice. I give it my highest recommendation: Five+ stars!