Negroes with Guns

- in June of 1961, the NAACP chapter of Monroe, North Carolina decided to picket the town's swimming pool that was forbidden to Negroes although they formed one quarter of the population

- the blacks started the picket line and the picket line closed the pool. When the pool closed the racists decided to handle the matter in traditional southern style, they turned to violence

- the pool remained closed but we continued the line and crowds of many hundreds would come to watch us and shout insults at the pickets

- on June 23, Williams was driving when a heavy car came up from behind him and tried to force his car off the embankment and over a cliff with a 75 ft. drop off. The bumpers of the two cars were stuck and the cars had to pass right by a highway patrol station, which was a 35 mile and hour zone, but the car was pushing his at 70 miles per hour. Williams started blowing his horn hoping to attract the attention of the patrolmen, but when they saw they just lifted their hands and laughed. He was finally able to rock loose from the other car's bumper and make a sharp turn into a ditch. He went to the police about it, but they would not do anything because he was black. The police in Monroe never did anything to help blacks

- the picket lines continued and the whites were getting mad. One day a white person fired a pistol and started screaming, "kill the niggers". The black people then showed the whites that they too were armed and then all of the sudden the police decided to help because they realized the whites were outnumbered and outarmed

- the southeastern regional headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan was also in Monroe

- Williams had been in the Marine Corps and when he got out he knew he wanted to join the NAACP, so he did

- The Monroe branch of the NAACP got the reputation of being the most militant branch of the NAACP

- The swimming pool they were fighting over had been built with federal funds, but yet negroes could not use it

- First the blacks had asked city official to build a pool in the negro community. the city officials said they couldn't comply with this request because it would be too expensive. Then they asked if two days out of each week the blacks could use the pool. The whites again said