Circular Letter from Robert F. Williams to W. E. B. Du Bois, June 1961 · Counternarratives Digital Archive

Title of the Document: Circular Letter from Robert F. Williams to W. E. B. Du Bois, June 1961
One Line Summary: This is a letter from Robert Williams to W. E. B. Du Bois acknowledging the significant worry among African Americans nationwide regarding the severe violence inflicted upon his community, particularly targeting the Freedom Riders, and urging recipients to endorse a formal complaint to be presented to the United Nations addressing this issue. This letter highlights Williams’ leadership within the civil rights movement as he takes initiative in seeking support and action.
Author: Robert F. Williams (1925-1996)
Date Created: June 1961
Location: Monroe, North Carolina
Type of Document: Letter
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Transcription: “Dear Friend, Afro-Americans all over the United States are deeply concerned about the savage brutality being visited upon our people, and especially the freedom riders in the states of Alabama and Mississippi. The Kennedy brothers have already surrendered law and order to mob violence by asking our people to forego constitutional rights so as not to embarrass Kennedy while he is in Europe. This is too much to ask of a people who have suffered the humiliating condition of life as a subhuman for 400 years.
It is obvious that our oppression is of no importance to Washington. John Kennedy says that mobs do not ask questions, therefore, we should wait for bigot’s tempers to cool. A group of Afro-Americans are uniting in an effort to get a nation, perhaps African, to present a declaration of complaint to the United Nations. We ask you and your friends to join us by

lending your signature to this noble undertaking. Please rush your permission to use your name to: Mrs. Odessa Cox, 637 West 119th Street, Los Angeles 44, California.
Yours for freedom,
Robert F. Williams”
Related: Robert F. Williams, The Kennedy Brothers (John F. and Robert F. Kennedy) and Odessa Cox (Robert Williams’ second wife)
Provenance: “Circular letter from Robert F. Williams to W. E. B. Du Bois, June 1961,” W. E. B. Du Bois Papers 1803-1999, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, Amherst, Massachusetts.