Negroes with Guns is a 1962 book by civil rights activist Robert F. Williams.[1][2] Timothy B. Tyson said, Negroes with Guns was "the single most important intellectual influence on Huey P. Newton, the founder of the Black Panther Party".[3] The book is used in college courses[4][5] and is discussed in debates.[6][7]

Negroes with Guns
2015 ebook edition reproduction of original cover art
AuthorRobert F. Williams
LanguageEnglish
GenreBlack Power
PublisherMarzani & Munsell
Publication date
1962
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint.

Negroes with Guns was Williams' experience throughout the Civil Rights Movement of Monroe, North Carolina. Because black rights were constantly violated, the self-defense policy was born, with Williams saying there was a need to "meet violence with violence."[8] However, Williams claimed that black militants were not promoting violence, but were combating it, believing in self-defense and not aggression.[9]

In film

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The subject matter of the book was made into the documentary film Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power, directed by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts, released in 2004.[10][11] The film provides witness testimonies of many of the events described in the book.

A documentary by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts, Rob Williams and Black Power, attempts to gather Williams from margins of movement scholarship.[12]

Foreign publication

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In summer 1963, the book was translated and published in China.[13]: 263 

Impact

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Negroes with Guns influenced Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in their founding of the Black Panther Party.[13]: 275 

References

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  1. ^ Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns, edited by Marc Schleifer, Marzani & Munsell, Inc., NY, 1962, p. 128, with forewords by Martin Luther King Jr. and Truman J. Nelson; republished by Martino Publishing, Mansfield Centre, CT, in 2013, ISBN 978-1-61427-411-7.
  2. ^ Paul S. Cowan, Negroes with Guns (review), The Harvard Crimson, 16 March 1963.
  3. ^ Glisson, Susan M. (2006). The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742544093.
  4. ^ Student's blogpost, 8 May 2012, accessed on 27 February 2016.
  5. ^ Aronson, Jay. Guns in American History: Culture, Violence, and Politics. Carnegie Mellon University, Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Fall 2019.
  6. ^ Prof. Nicholas Johnson, The what and why of Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms, The Washington Post, 27 January 2014.
  7. ^ Ann Coulter, Negroes With Guns, Ann Coulter column, 18 April 2012.
  8. ^ Williams, Robert Franklin (1998). Negroes with Guns. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814327142.
  9. ^ Williams, Robert Franklin (1998). Negroes with Guns. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814327142.
  10. ^ New York Times movie review, NEGROES WITH GUNS: ROB WILLIAMS AND BLACK POWER (2003), accessed on 27 February 2016.
  11. ^ PBS - Independent Lens, NEGROES WITH GUNS: Rob Williams and Black Power, accessed on 27 February 2016.
  12. ^ Jeffries, Hasan Kwame (2006). ""Negroes with Guns": Rob Williams and Black Power". OAH Magazine of History. 20 (5): 44–45. doi:10.1093/maghis/20.5.44. ISSN 0882-228X. JSTOR 25162085.
  13. ^ a b Li, Hongshan (2024). Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231207058. JSTOR 10.7312/li--20704.
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