Three attempts on Robert Williams's life
Williams describes three attempts on Robert's life. After Robert turned down an bribe from the state's governor, white supremacists seemed to realize that he would accept nothing less than social and economic equality, and resolved to kill him. Williams recalls the attempts on his life here. Despite coordinated efforts at assassination, at least twice with the aid of law enforcement officers, Robert kept himself alive, once with skillful driving, once by brandishing his rifle, and once with help from Williams and her shotgun.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Mabel Williams, August 20, 1999. Interview K-0266. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
These people had built up a lot of frustration.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
And Robert—
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Because at one time the governor sent a black man, a Dr. Larkins, in who
was the governor's Negro. Sent him into Monroe to find out
what Robert wanted. And Robert gave him the ten-point plan that the
NAACP and civic league all had agreed on, which included jobs and, which
included equal pay, and which included integration of the schools. And
either the provision of a pool or the setting aside of days that black
kids could use the pool. Ten points. And Robert told Dr. Larkin,
"What I want is the ten-point plan implemented." And
Dr. said, "I didn't come down here to find out what
your ten points are. I want—the governor wants to know what
you want, individually. What you want." And Robert told him
again, "I want what my people want. And my people want this ten
point plan." And so when they found out—when the
governor found out that Robert was not going to sell out the
movement—
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
[unclear]
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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He couldn't be bribed. Then that's when all hell
broke loose. And these people started to say, "Well we got to
kill him. He's not going to give in." Even the NAACP
after they had suspended him for saying that we needed to defend
ourselves, they sent a man down and told him that if he would renounce
his statement that—about violence, that
they would take him to New York and make him the biggest Negro leader in
the country. Or if it wasn't the NAACP—. Somebody
contacted his lawyer, Conrad Lenn and told him that. So Conrad said,
"So what do you say, Robert?" And Rob told him,
"Say, go to hell. You tell them I said go to hell."
And Conrad was just—oh, he was delighted. He said,
"Well I already told them that because I knew that's
what you would say." [Laughter]
So when they found out that he was not going to give into be elevated as
a leader of the black people sponsored by the white folks, then they
said, "Well if we can't buy him, then
we've got to kill him."
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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What happens then?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Then, three attempts that I know about on his life. I was behind him in
cars twice.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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Can you tell me a little bit about that? The first couple I know [unclear] . It happened during the pool
protest.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
Yes, yes, yes.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
Could you tell me about what happened?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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We were on the way to the pool. Robert—. The kids had been
taken to the pool. Robert had gone to get, pick up some more kids. And
then Mrs. Johnson and I, one of our co-workers—
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
[unclear]
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Aselee. We were behind—. Rob was in the car with one of the
kids. And we were in the car behind Rob. Of course we had our pistols on
the seat. And we were going down this road, Roosevelt Boulevard. Got to
the place where they had the little—. It
was a Highway Patrol station up on the hill. And Rob was driving his
little Hillman car. And when we left this side of town and were trying
to follow Rob to the pool, a car came along side and cut in between us.
And then another car came and cut in in front of that car. And we
couldn't get around. But the other car started bumping into
his car and trying to run him off the side of the road. Well, going down
that hill, if they had run him off the side of the road in that little
car, it would have killed him. And when we were passing the Highway
Patrol, that scene stands out in my mind. I was waving and pointing. The
Highway Patrolmen, two of them, were standing out watching what was
going on.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
And just watching.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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And just watching. And I was standing—. I was in the car
pointing to what was going on in front of us, and they were just
standing there laughing, you know. That was one time when they tried to
kill him. But he was able to maneuver and get away. And I think what
happened is the—. I think he said that the car seat jammed on
the rifle, else he would have been able—he would have had to
kill somebody who was trying to kill him. Then when he tried to get the
people arrested who had done that the policeman Mooney, told him,
"Well you go get him and bring him in and we'll
consider arresting him." Well, now you know, even though Rob
knew who it was, had he gone on his property to try to get him and bring
him in, he would have been killed right then. So, that was one of the
situations. And the other one was when we were
protesting again at the pool. And they blocked him off and they were
getting ready—the police were getting ready to kill him
except that one of the—. That he got out. Rob got out with
his gun, a long rifle, which he had one of the kids to hand to him. And
when he went to put a bullet in the chamber—this big, long
bullet about that long fell out. And then the people—. They
were getting ready to lynch him that day. They were talking about,
"Pour gasoline on the niggers. Kill them." You know.
"Burn them up."
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
That was at—
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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That was at Hillltop, yeah. That was—. And we were behind him
at that time.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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They—
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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In a different car.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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They stopped his car?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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And were there a lot of white people out there?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Yeah. It just seems like hundreds and hundreds.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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Was it—
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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And the police were just directing traffic and pretending they
didn't see it until he stepped out with the rifle. And when
he stepped out with the rifle and they found out he was armed, then they
came running and tried to disarm him at that place. And he would not be
disarmed. And finally they had to—they let him out of there
because he was armed and they weren't about to disarm him. So
he was able to escape that time.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
All he had was a rifle?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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He had a rifle. But then the young kid on the other side had his Luger.
I believe it was his Luger. And when the policeman went to the side of
the car and was going to shoot Rob in the back, the kid put the gun out
the window and told him, "If you pull that trigger
you're dead." And he backed up. That cop backed up
and fell in the ditch. But then, fate, I guess, was with us. God was
with us. Those prayers that his mother and my mother and everybody else
had had and the neighbors protected, protected us.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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And the young people had been well-trained. That took a lot of
restraint.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Yes it did.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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Not to shoot first and then—
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Not to shoot, yes.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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To let the situation play out [unclear] .
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Yeah, a lot of kids would have just gone on and shot. And then all of
them would have been killed at that time. They would have been wiped
out. They would have been wiped out. God is good.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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And you said there was a third time?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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That was going down Morgan Mill Road one time. And it seemed that
Rob—I think Rob outran them. They weren't able to
stop him. We were just going down Morgan Mill Road to the pool.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
What was the occasion that the deputy took—stopped
Rob's car when it had no lights?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
That was after they had butchered up his car. You know when I told you
they were jamming his car that time. They knocked out one of his
headlights. So I think it was the following Saturday or the Saturday
following that. We had just put out "The Crusader."
And we were out distributing it. And he was going down one of the back
streets near Winchester Avenue. And he was going down Fairley Avenue.
And it was about dusk dark. And the police pulled him over and told him
that he was under arrest for driving a vehicle with—. That he
didn't have any lights on. And he said, "Well
it's not dark yet. Why would I be having lights on?"
And they said, "Well, it's time for you to have your
lights on. And since you don't have your lights on
we're going to arrest you and take you to town." And
so somehow he was able to convince them that, "Well, let me
drive my car. And I will drive the car on and then I'll
follow you and I'll go on." And that was down
Fairley Avenue. And our street, Boyd Street, ran into Fairley Avenue.
And when he got to our street, the police had already passed Boyd
Street. He turned in. And then he turned into our driveway.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
Now, he didn't think they were going to take him to jail or
what—?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Oh yeah. He felt that what they were getting ready to do—and
we all felt, knew, that what they were getting ready to do was set him
up for a lynching for that night. And so he wasn't about to
go to that jail with them. He convinced them somehow that he would
follow them to jail. And then he turned off and came into the, our
driveway. And I heard the tired screeching and all that.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
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You were inside the house?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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I was inside the house. And I knew something was up. I didn't
know what had happened. But I came out with the shotgun. And he jumped
out of the car, his car, and tried to—was trying to get our
dog loose because our dog was a German Shepherd and he was bad. And I
was standing there with the shotgun. So that's when the
police came up and they jumped out of the car. And they were saying they
were going to take him to jail. And I said, "Do you have a
warrant?" And they said—. They backed up and they
saw me with the shotgun. And, so, I said, "If you
don't have a warrant, you're not taking him
anywhere." And so [Laughter] I
guess I was shaking like a leaf. And they said, "This crazy
woman is nervous and crazy enough to shoot us." And they got in
their car.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
What was Rob doing at this time?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
He was trying—he was struggling with the dog because the dog
was raging against the chain, you know. And then, well, once he saw that
the police were all—they were getting scared, and I handed
the shotgun to him. And they really flew them.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
I bet they did.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
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Later on one of the neighbors said, oh, that's the first time
they'd ever seen the police run that fast out of a
neighborhood. [Laughter]
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
Did they arrest Rob?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
No. And they never did come back. They never did come back. But we got
our gun club together that night because we felt like they were coming
back. I told the man, "Well, don't come back unless
you got a warrant." But they never did get
a warrant and they never did come back. They knew they were wrong. They
knew they were wrong. And it wasn't even dark, you know. So,
that's another time they would have killed him for sure.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
I think we're about—I'm about running
out of things.
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
Okay.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
But, didn't you get a—? Didn't you just
want to like run off to Canada or something like that long before you
actually had to leave?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
Yes, yes.
- DAVID CECELSKI:
-
Didn't you get tired of having to live—?
- MABEL WILLIAMS:
-
I did get tired of it. I was scared to death.