<P> The Jim Crow system employed "terror as a means of social control," with the most organized manifestations being the Ku Klux Klan and their collaborators in local police departments . This violence played a key role in blocking the progress of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s . Some black organizations in the South began practicing armed self - defense . The first to do so openly was the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP led by Robert F. Williams . Williams had rebuilt the chapter after its membership was terrorized out of public life by the Klan . He did so by encouraging a new, more working - class membership to arm itself thoroughly and defend against attack . When Klan nightriders attacked the home of NAACP member Dr. Albert Perry in October 1957, Williams' militia exchanged gunfire with the stunned Klansmen, who quickly retreated . The following day, the city council held an emergency session and passed an ordinance banning KKK motorcades . One year later, Lumbee Indians in North Carolina would have a similarly successful armed stand - off with the Klan (known as the Battle of Hayes Pond) which resulted in KKK leader James W. "Catfish" Cole being convicted of incitement to riot . </P> <P> After the acquittal of several white men charged with sexually assaulting black women in Monroe, Williams announced to United Press International reporters that he would "meet violence with violence" as a policy . Williams' declaration was quoted on the front page of The New York Times, and The Carolina Times considered it "the biggest civil rights story of 1959 ." NAACP National chairman Roy Wilkins immediately suspended Williams from his position, but the Monroe organizer won support from numerous NAACP chapters across the country . Ultimately, Wilkins resorted to bribing influential organizer Daisy Bates to campaign against Williams at the NAACP national convention and the suspension was upheld . The convention nonetheless passed a resolution which stated: "We do not deny, but reaffirm the right of individual and collective self - defense against unlawful assaults ." Martin Luther King Jr. argued for Williams' removal, but Ella Baker and WEB Dubois both publicly praised the Monroe leader's position . </P> <P> Williams--along with his wife, Mabel Williams--continued to play a leadership role in the Monroe movement, and to some degree, in the national movement . The Williamses published The Crusader, a nationally circulated newsletter, beginning in 1960, and the influential book Negroes With Guns in 1962 . Williams did not call for full militarization in this period, but "flexibility in the freedom struggle ." Williams was well - versed in legal tactics and publicity, which he had used successfully in the internationally known "Kissing Case" of 1958, as well as nonviolent methods, which he used at lunch counter sit - ins in Monroe--all with armed self - defense as a complementary tactic . </P> <P> Williams led the Monroe movement in another armed stand - off with white supremacists during an August 1961 Freedom Ride; he had been invited to participate in the campaign by Ella Baker and James Forman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The incident (along with his campaigns for peace with Cuba) resulted in him being targeted by the FBI and prosecuted for kidnapping; he was cleared of all charges in 1976 . Meanwhile, armed self - defense continued discreetly in the Southern movement with such figures as SNCC's Amzie Moore, Hartman Turnbow, and Fannie Lou Hamer all willing to use arms to defend their lives from nightrides . Taking refuge from the FBI in Cuba, the Willamses broadcast the radio show "Radio Free Dixie" throughout the eastern United States via Radio Progresso beginning in 1962 . In this period, Williams advocated guerilla warfare against racist institutions, and saw the large ghetto riots of the era as a manifestation of his strategy . </P>

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