Robert and Mabel Williams grew up in the town of Monroe, North Carolina- which also happens to be the birth place of the racist former US Senator Jesse helms. Indeed, it was after witnessing Helms' father-also the chief of police in the 1950s and 1960s-beating a black woman that Robert Williams made a personal commitment to fight racism. This commitment would lead Williams to join the NAACP and organize a series of protests whose purpose was to open the public swimming pool in town to its black citizens. This innocent demand evolved into an armed confrontation with hundreds of Klansmen and their supporters-and only to use the pool one day a week!

This struggle convinced Rob that non-violent resistance to racist oppression was doomed to failure. Only when backed by the possibility of armed self-defense could it be effective. This approach played itself out repeatedly as the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s rolled on. The Williams also understood the nature of imperialism and the place of the US black liberation struggle in the world wide struggle against the US' war to conquer the planet. Kidnapping charges were brought against the couple and they were forced to leave the US. Robert and Mabel sought asylum in places like Cuba, China, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union. Robert never ceased detailing the ways that the worldwide struggle against US imperialism and the black liberation struggle in the US were one and the same. They made shortwave broadcasts on Radio Free Dixie and a newspaper, The Crusader. This approach was adopted by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.