Armed Resistance, Martin Luther King and Anti Racism

I’m on my third book on armed resistance in the South between 1950 and 1970:  Deacons for Defense; Robert Williams: Radio Free Dixie and The Blood Done Sign my Name.  What started out with some background reading on the history of my new home state of North Carolina has turned into almost obsession to understand the complexity of the civil rights movement and the impact of violence in anti-racism.

I’ve heard many Martin Luther King sermons but no mention of Robert Williams, a member of the Monroe NC Unitarian Fellowship in the 1950’s.  He practiced and preached armed resistance and eventually fled to Cuba.  The NAACP cancelled his membership. The SCL disparaged him.

I’ve participated in anti-racism workshops but nothing helped me understand racism and white privilege like the last chapter in ‘The Blood Done Sign My Name’.

I feel really ignorant and naïve.  Maybe that is why I am obsessed with seeking greater understanding.  I also am worried.  When I was in the first grade in Boise, my teacher wrote my mother a note reporting that I was holding hands with a little “colored boy”. I think we kissed but that may be my mother’s tendency for exaggeration. I always thought the point to the story was that I didn’t even notice his skin color.  Now I wonder what happened to that little “colored boy”.  What did the teacher say to him?  For me it is a nice little story – but is there a more painful racist version?

Comments

[h sofia]

Thanks for the book suggestions. I will make a note.

How are you liking Spiral Staircase by Armstrong? I read that a few months ago; powerful stuff for me.