by Revolution
Americans if they expected the special concessions made
possible through the taxation of us all. This amounted to
taxation without representation and it was one of our biggest complaints.
As a result of this racist policy, out of approximately
3,000 Afro-Americans in Monroe, there are 1 ,000 unemployed-persons unable to obtain jobs even as janitors, maids, or porters. And maids and porters, when employed,
earn at most $ 1 5 for a six-day week. One of the few kinds of
work available, cotton picking, pays all of $2.50 for 1 00
pounds of picked cotton; at breakneck speed it takes a long
day, much more than eight hours, to pick 1 50 pounds. Virtually every Negro high school and college graduate in Monroe has to leave to find employment. This is not true of the white
graduates. Negroes are even laid off in the summer so white
college youth can work at home. Meanwhile, each summer
our street corners are crowded with colored youths just out
of school. They have no means of gainful employment or
wholesome recreation.
For reasons such as these we believe that the basic ill is
an economic ill, our being denied the right to have a decent
standard of living.
The Freedom Riders Come to Monroe
We had planned to put picket lines around the county
courthouse to draw attention to our program and to apply
pressure for its achievement. At this time seventeen Freedom Riders came to our support, perhaps the first time that they engaged in a struggle over such fundamental demands
as our program presented. Hitherto, as I've said, the goals
were peripheral and while important, amenable to small
compromises. For example, we had won integration in the
40
NON-VIOLENCE EMBOLDENS THE RACISTS
public library. On these peripheral matters, leaders of the
Sit-In Movements can meet with city and state officials and
win concessions. I believe this is an important part of the
overall Negro struggle. But when these concessions are used
for propaganda by Negro "leaders" as examples of the marvelous progress the Afro-American is supposedly making, thereby shifting attention from the basic evils, such victories
cease to be even peripheral and become self-defeating.
When we tackle basic evils, however, the racists won't give
an inch. This, I think, is why the Freedom Riders who came
to Monroe met with such naked violence and brutality. That
and the pledge of non-violence.
The Freedom Riders reflected an attitude of certain
Negro leaders who said that I had mishandled the situation
and that they would show us how to get victory without violence. With them came the Reverend Paul Brooks, sent by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., to act as a "troubleshooter" for the Freedom Riders, should the need arise, and to work with the community, helping it to develop nonviolent techniques and tactics. I disagreed with their position but was more than willing to co-operate. The community
rented a house for them which was christened "Freedom
House" in their honor. They were joined by some of our militant youth who had participated in the picket lines around the swimming pool the previous month. Together they
formed the Monroe Non-Violent Action Committee.
Although I myself would not take the non-violent oath,
I asked the people of the community to support them and
their non-violent campaign. Monroe students took the nonviolent oath, promising to adhere to the non-violent discipline, which, along with other principles, prohibited selfdefense. I also stated that if they could show me any gains won from the racists by non-violent methods, I too would
become a pacifist.
At the same time, several observers were in Monroe to
see for themselves what so-called democracy was like in
Union County. We knew that people living in other sections
of the country and other countries of the world would find
it hard to believe that such vicious racist conditions, such
41
NEGROES WITH GUNS
brutality and ruthlessness, existed in the United States especially in such a "progressive" Southern state as North Carolina was supposed to be. So we encouraged these visits.
Julian Mayfield, the young Afro-American novelist and an old
friend of Monroe, was there. A young exchange student, Constance Lever of Durham, England, was a guest at our house along with Mrs. Mae Mallory, who had been active in the
movement for true integration in her own city, New York.
When the Monroe Non-Violent Action Committee set up
its picket line on the first day, the Freedom Riders seemed
convinced they were making real progress. One Freedom
Rider even returned from the line overjoyed. He said, "You
know, a policeman smiled at me in town today while I was
on the line." I laughed and told him not to pay that any attention because the policeman was probably smiling at the thought of how best to kill him. Constance, the English exchange student, had joined the picket line. She said, "Oh, I don't think these people are so bad. I just think you don't
know how to approach them. I noticed that they looked at
me in a friendly way in town today." I tried to explain to her
that these people were trying to win her and the others over
in the hope that they would leave Monroe. The day that
these people realized that they couldn't win the Freedom
Riders over, they would show their true nature. A few days
later, Constance Lever was arrested by the Monroe police
and charged with "incitement to rioL"
The Racists Act by Violence
It was on the third day that the townspeople started
insulting the pickets and their politeness turned to viciousness. A policeman knocked one picket to the ground and threatened to break his camera. Another was arrested and
all the time the white crowd heckled. When one of the white
Freedom Riders smiled back at the hecklers, two of Monroe's "pure white flowers" spit in his face. Tensions continued to mount.
On the fourth day a white Freedom Rider was attacked
42
NON-VIOLENCE EMBOLDENS THE RACISTS
on the street in town and beaten by three whites. The police
broke this up and promised to arrest the white people who
had attacked this Freedom Rider. So the Freedom Riders
kept on thinking there was a possibility that the law would
be on their side because they had publicly proclaimed themselves to be non-violent. I told them it was all right for them to be pacifists but they shouldn't proclaim this to the world
because they were just inviting full-scale violent attack. In
the past we hadn't had any victims of the type of violence
they were beginning to experience because we had shown a
willingness to fight. We had had picket lines and sit-ins and
nobody had successfully attacked our lines. But they said
they were struggling from a moral point of view.
On Friday a white Freedom Fighter was shot in the
stomach with a high-powered air rifle as he was walking the
line. This happened right in front of the police. And that day
the city sprayed the picket line with insecticide, hoping to
drive the students away from the line. Meanwhile, the city
had passed special laws, ordering pickets to be fifteen feet
apart at all times. They had to maintain this distance; they
couldn't be too close or too far apart. Then
the police
started using the tactic of stopping one picket and when the
one behind continued walking on they would arrest him for
passing too closely behind the other. Also that afternoon, a
Negro boy, ten years old, was attacked in town by three
white men because he had been seen on the picket line.
None of the attackers was arrested.
"Ain't You Dead Yet?"
That night the Freedom Riders went for a ride into
Mecklenburg County across the line and stopped at a restaurant. There they were recognized and attacked by white racists. In the scramble one of the Freedom Riders could escape only by running into the woods; the others had to flee in the
car, leaving him behind. We notified the Monroe city police,
our county police, the Charlotte police, and the Mecklenburg
County police that a Freedom Rider was in the woods, miss-
43
NEGROES WITH GUNS
ing, and the racists were trying to catch him. We were afraid
he would be lynched. We asked them to intercede. The Monroe police refused. The Union County police refused.
Rev. Brooks called the Governor's office. Governor
Terry Sanford was out, they said. But Rev. Brooks got an
opportunity to speak to the Governor's chief aide, Hugh B.
Cannon, and complained to him about the lack of police protection for the Freedom Riders. The Governor's aide kept talking about Robert Williams. Rev. Brooks said he was not
calling about Robert Williams; he was calling about a missing
Freedom Rider. He said that they were pacifists, non-violent
people, and wanted police protection. The Governor's aide,
Hugh B. Cannon, replied, "If you're a real pacifist you had
better get the hell out of Monroe, man, because there's going
to be plenty of violence there."
Rev. Brooks kept trying to appeal to him for police protection but finally gave up. He said, "Since you're talking about Robert Williams so much, he's right here. Do you want
to talk to him?" The Governor's aide said, Yes.
Cannon and I had talked about two weeks before when
I had asked for state police protection. Instead the Governor
had sent an Uncle Tom representative named Dr. Larkins,
who is supposed to be the Governor's troubleshooter. He
came and held a secret meeting with me to find out what it
would take to quiet things down. I gave him the ten-point
program and it shocked him. He said that it was too much,
that the demands were too high, but he would take it up with
the Governor anyway. And he said that, well, he understood
I had been undergoing economic pressure and that this was
wrong and that maybe I could get a job, that maybe the state
could help me if we just didn't start any trouble around here.
When I called back the Governor's office and told Hugh
B. Cannon about this bribe attempt, he replied, "You mean
to tell me that you're not dead yet?" And I told him, "No, I'm
not dead, not yet, but when I die a lot of people may die with
me." So he said, "Well, you may not be dead, but you're
going to get killed." I kept telling him that we wanted protection, trying to avoid bloodshed. He said, "If you're trying to avoid bloodshed you shouldn't be agitating."
44
NON-VIOLENCE EMBOLDENS THE RACISTS
The Governor and the FBI
So this Friday night, when Rev. Paul Brooks finished
talking to Hugh B. Cannon and he said he wanted to talk to
me, I got on the phone and told him what had happened. He
said, "Well, you're getting just what you deserve down there.
You've been asking for violence, now you're getting it." I told
him that I wasn't appealing to him for myself. I was appealing
to him for a pacifist. And I told him, "Besides, I'm not appealing to you for a Negro; this happens to be a white boy who's lost in the woods." He said, "I don't give a damn who he is.
You asked for violence and now you're getting it, see; you're
getting just what you deserved." So I told him, "Do you know
one thing . . . you are the biggest fool in the whole world!"
He became infuriated and started raging on the telephone
and told me to shut up. I told him that he may be the Governor's assistant but he couldn't tell me to shut up. He said, "If you don't stop talking to me like that I'll hang up." And he
finally hung up. No protection came.
Each time the Freedom Riders would get ready to go on
the picket line they would call the FBI in Charlotte and ask
for protection. The FBI would say, "We're on our way." But
they would never be there when anything happened. On Saturday when the Freedom Riders were picketing in town and the taxicabs that had been transporting them to the line had
started out to pick them up, the local white racists gathered
together and blocked the road. This meant the Freedom Riders had to walk back to the colored community which was almost a mile away. The mob followed the Freedom Riders
along the streets, throwing stones at them and threatening
to kill them. When they came into the colored community,
the colored people who were not participating in the picket
line became very upset that our community had been invaded by a mob chasing Freedom Riders. Many of the colored people started stoning cars and beating back the white racists.
45
Chapter S
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Self-Defense Prevents I Po.rom:
Ilclsts En.lneer I
Ildnlllln. 'rlmeUI
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sunday morning the chief of police and his men drove
through the county urging whites to come to town to fight
the Freedom Riders. In addition, people were coming in from
other counties and from South Carolina. An organization
called the Minute Men had brought people in.
By afternoon thousands of white racists had gathered
in town, concentrating at the courthouse square. At 4
o'clock James Forman, one of the picket captains, called my
home requesting four taxicabs within the hour. He said that
the racists were threatening to assault the line and complained of police indifference. Forman was to end up in jail with a split head one hour later.
At 4:30 the Negro cab company called to report that
they couldn't get through to the picketers because every entrance into town was blocked off. Minutes later a couple of cars driven by our people came racing into the neighborhood. They had just made it in from town to report that the mob had started to attack the picket line, shots had been
fired and the town was in the grip of a full-scale riot.
When the self-defense guard, which up to now had
stayed away from the courthouse square, heard that the
lives of the Freedom Riders and local non-violent youth were
in danger, they jumped into their cars and rode into town,
46
SELF-DEFENSE PREVENTS A POGROM
breaking through the mob's blockade to rescue the picketers. Julian Mayfield went with them.
The white mob was already armed. The police disarmed some of the men attempting to rescue the Freedom Riders and turned these additional weapons over to the
mob. Firing broke out at the picket line when the police and
the mob tried to prevent the English exchange student from
getting into one of
the rescue cars driven by three armed
Negroes. The police held Negroes while white racists beat
them up. At first the victims were all Freedom Riders and the
local non-violent students, but soon Negroes were attacked
indiscriminately as the mob fanned out all over town. They
were massing for an attack against our community.
We Aim for Self-Defense
So many Freedom Riders and Negroes were arrested
that many prisoners with legitimate charges against them
were released from jail to make room. Many of these people
who came out of jail reported to me that students were
bleeding to death there without any medical attention. I
called the chief of police and told him that I had reports
that the students were not getting medical attention and that
their lives were in danger. I told him I would give him just
thirty minutes to get medical attention for them and that if
they didn't receive medical aid within thirty minutes, we
would march on the jail. About fifteen minutes later James
Forman called from the hospital to let me know that they
were receiving medical care. Just after that, Julian Mayfield
returned and reported that members of the white mob,
which now included some uniformed police, were near the
railroad tracks and firing down at Negroes who had fled
town. At the approach of darkness, white people started
driving through our community, shouting and screaming.
Some fired out of their cars and threw objects at people on
the streets. Many of the colored people started arming, exchanging guns, borrowing ammunition and forming guards 47
NEGROES WITH GUNS
for the night to defend the community from the mob massing
in town. On the block where I live there were about 300 people milling around the street.
About 6 o'clock in the evening a white couple, Mr. and
Mrs. Bruce Stegall, came riding through our neighborhood.
They were recognized as people who had driven through
town the day before with a banner on their car announcing
an "Open Season On Coons." It meant that this was killing
time.
People have asked why a racist would take his wife into
a riot-torn community like ours on that Sunday. But this is
nothing new to those who know the nature of Klan raiding.
