''Negroes with Guns'' is a 1962 book by civil rights activist
Robert F. Williams
Robert Franklin Williams (February 26, 1925 – October 15, 1996) was an American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and into 1961. He succeeded ...
. Timothy B. Tyson said, ''Negroes with Guns'' was "the single most important intellectual influence on
Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. He ran the party as its first leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with ...
, the founder of the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...
". The book is used in college courses and is discussed in debates.
''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." However, Williams claimed that black militants were not promoting violence, but were combating it, believing in self-defense and not aggression.
In film
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. 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.
Foreign publication
In summer 1963, the book was translated and published in China.
Impact
''Negroes with Guns'' influenced
Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. He ran the party as its first leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with ...
and
Bobby Seale
Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an African American revolutionary, political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization the Black Panther Party (BPP) ...
in their founding of the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...
.
References
{{Reflist
External links
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Google Books page
1962 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
American political books
Anti-racism in the United States
Non-fiction books adapted into films