| February 24, 2006 |
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Negroes With Guns
This  companion site to the documentary airing on PBS' Independent Lens explores the little-known but remarkable life of Rob Williams, a man from the Deep South who rose through the ranks of the civil rights movement. However, as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others called for peaceful resistance to white bigotry, Williams, who advocated for black power and armed self-defense, found himself outside the mainstream. In 1961, Williams and his wife, Mabel, fled to Cuba. There they broadcast Radio Free Dixie, a 50,000-watt show that ricocheted from Key West to Seattle. They played Otis Redding, Nina Simone, and Pete Seeger, and decried the racism back home in impassioned, lyrical editorials. PBS presents excerpts from several of the broadcasts here. Don't miss Mabel introducing her husband, "the Afro-American refugee from racial oppression in the U.S.A.," or Williams' 1965 "Freedom Now or Death" speech. (in U.S. History) |
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