Radio Free Dixie, Second Edition: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power

by Timothy B. Tyson

Overview

This classic book tells the remarkable story of Robert F. Williams (1925-1996), one of the most influential black activists of the generation that toppled Jim Crow and forever altered the arc of American history. In the late 1950s, Williams, as president of the Monroe, North Carolina, branch of the NAACP, and his followers used machine guns, dynamite, and Molotov cocktails to confront Klan terrorists. Advocating “armed self-reliance,” Williams challenged not only white supremacists but also Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights establishment. Forced to flee during the 1960s to Cuba — where he broadcast “Radio Free Dixie,” a program of black politics and music that could be heard as far away as Los Angeles and New York City — and then to China, Williams remained a controversial figure for the rest of his life.

Radio Free Dixie reveals that nonviolent civil rights protest and armed resistance movements grew out of the same soil, confronted the same predicaments, and reflected the same quest for African American freedom. As Robert Williams’s story demonstrates, independent black political action, black cultural pride, and armed self-reliance operated in the South in tension and in tandem with legal efforts and nonviolent protest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469651873
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/17/2020
Edition description:	Second Edition, with a new preface by the author
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Timothy B. Tyson is senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, adjunct professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of The Blood of Emmett Till.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Tyson has written, with compelling prose and great insight, an excellent biography as well as a definitive history of armed self-defense doctrines in the civil rights movement. He has produced a fascinating book that is a welcome antidote to the historical pap being spooned out in popular documentaries these days."—Journal of Southern History

Tyson's firecracker text crackles with brilliant and lasting images of black life in the Carolinas and across the South in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Liberally peppered with quotes from Williams . . . the book is imbued with the man's voice and his indefatigable spirit. . . . Tyson successfully portrays Williams as a troubled visionary, a strong, stubborn and imperfect man, one who greatly influenced what became the Black Power Movement and its young leaders."—Publishers Weekly

An important study of a forgotten Civil Rights leader. . . . [A] groundbreaking, skillfully written revisionist monograph (the first full-length study of Williams ever published)."—Library Journal

Meticulously researched. . . . [and] magisterially argued."—Journal of American History

A sympathetic, absorbing portrait of one of the most influential and controversial African-American leaders of the twentieth century. . . . A remarkable, often harrowing, account of the civil rights movement and some of the people that made it possible. . . . A book that powerfully conveys the life and voice of one of the key personalities of the modern civil rights struggle."—American Historical Review

This book couldn't be more timely because it challenges the effort of many white Americans to sanitize, deny and distort the past, often in the name of heritage."—News and Observer

Tyson's main achievement, in addition to conquering the problem academics have in writing readable prose, is to put Williams's Black Power ideology and actions into the larger context of the era— the Cold War, the nonviolent civil struggle, and the questions of gender and sexuality in racial politics. This is an interesting book about a captivating personality during a fascinating time of recent history."—Detroit Free Press

Fills a void in the history of the civil rights struggle and provocatively details an evolution of armed black nationalism during the 50s that was overshadowed by the nonviolent movement associated with Martin Luther King. . . . Contain[s] a great deal of intriguing and revelatory information that makes it a worthy read."—Charlotte Observer

Timothy Tyson has written a compelling story that needed to be told and now needs to be read by all who care about race, courage, and humanity. Robert Williams was an inspiration to many and a threat to others; Tyson gives him his proper due."—Julian Bond

Radio Free Dixie is a monumental book. It is impossible to conceive of the postwar black freedom struggle without Robert Williams. And yet, most histories barely mention the man. Timothy Tyson's profound biography rewrites the history of the African American struggle for democracy, unearthing its most militant streams and revealing its deep relationship to revolutions around the world."—Robin D. G. Kelley

Editorial Reviews

Tyson has written, with compelling prose and great insight, an excellent biography as well as a definitive history of armed self-defense doctrines in the civil rights movement. He has produced a fascinating book that is a welcome antidote to the historical pap being spooned out in popular documentaries these days.”—Journal of Southern History

“Tyson’s firecracker text crackles with brilliant and lasting images of black life in the Carolinas and across the South in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Liberally peppered with quotes from Williams . . . the book is imbued with the man’s voice and his indefatigable spirit. . . . Tyson successfully portrays Williams as a troubled visionary, a strong, stubborn and imperfect man, one who greatly influenced what became the Black Power Movement and its young leaders.”—Publishers Weekly

“An important study of a forgotten Civil Rights leader. . . . [A] groundbreaking, skillfully written revisionist monograph (the first full-length study of Williams ever published).”—Library Journal

“Meticulously researched. . . . [and] magisterially argued.”—Journal of American History

“A sympathetic, absorbing portrait of one of the most influential and controversial African-American leaders of the twentieth century. . . . A remarkable, often harrowing, account of the civil rights movement and some of the people that made it possible. . . . A book that powerfully conveys the life and voice of one of the key personalities of the modern civil rights struggle.”—American Historical Review

“This book couldn’t be more timely because it challenges the effort of many white Americans to sanitize, deny and distort the past, often in the name of heritage.”—News & Observer

“Tyson’s main achievement, in addition to conquering the problem academics have in writing readable prose, is to put Williams’s Black Power ideology and actions into the larger context of the era — the Cold War, the nonviolent civil struggle, and the questions of gender and sexuality in racial politics. This is an interesting book about a captivating personality during a fascinating time of recent history.”—Detroit Free Press

“Fills a void in the history of the civil rights struggle and provocatively details an evolution of armed black nationalism during the 50s that was overshadowed by the nonviolent movement associated with Martin Luther King. . . . Contain[s] a great deal of intriguing and revelatory information that makes it a worthy read.”—Charlotte Observer

“A stunning new biography. . . . Written in lucid and confident prose with a solid reliance on first-hand accounts, Radio Free Dixie presents an engaging portrait of one man’s continuous struggle to resist political and social oppression.”—Emerge

“An excellent book. . . . Timothy Tyson has done Williams, and scholars of 20th century world radicalisms, a great service with Radio Free Dixie. . . . Definitive in its coverage of Williams’s life between his birth in North Carolina in 1925 and his exile to Cuba in 1961.”—Against The Current

From the Publisher