Article clipped from The Charlotte News (Robert Williams: Man Of Trouble) · Counternarratives Digital Archive

Title of the Document: Article clipped from The Charlotte News (Robert Williams: Man Of Trouble)
One Line Summary: This is a newspaper article from The Charlotte News that paints Robert F. Williams as a controversial figure in Monroe, North Carolina. The article highlights Williams' activism, his relationship with the NAACP, his advocacy for violence, and his interactions with the government, particularly regarding his desire to travel to Cuba.
Author: The Charlotte News
Date Created: 21 August 1961
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Type of Document: Newspaper Article
Publisher: The Charlotte News
Transcription: Robert Williams: Man Of Trouble
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
MONROE — For five years this city has been making headlines about racial strife. Nearly every racial incident reported here can be traced to a single source. That source is Robert F Williams. A large, heavy set Negro with a faraway gaze in his eyes. Williams is a native of Union County. He has spent a great deal of time in the north and in recent months has visited Cuba.
A LONGTIME leader in the NAACP. Williams, who wears a Castro-type beard, has been at odds with the NAACP for years because of his advocacy of meeting force with force. On July 17, 1959, the 50th annual convention of the NAACP in New York Voted 764-14 in approval of Williams’ suspension as Union County chapter president for his stand advocating violence. Williams later won reelection by his chapter, of which his wife is secretary. Williams has boasted to newsmen that he maintains a complete arms arsenal in his home in the northern section of Monroe, and that for months he has kept armed guards in and about his residence at night. A month ago, Williams announced that the State Department had declined to issue him a passport to make his third trip to Cuba
and declared, "I am a prisoner of the United States." He said he wanted to take his 29-year-old wife and two sons, aged 13 and 11. "with the possibility of staying permanently." For a time, Williams flew a Cuban flag from a pole in his backyard. Last May 12, Tom Roddy, a 21-year-old Negro paratrooper home on leave, pulled the flag down.
Related: Robert F. Williams, Fidel Castro (Former President of Cuba) and Tom Roddy (A paratrooper)
Provenance: “Robert Williams: Man Of Trouble, August 28, 1961,” The Charlotte News, Charlotte, North Carolina.