revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

90
The leadership of the national office of CORE publicly opposed
Brooklyn CORE . James Farmer and Roy Wilkins came out against
Brooklyn CORE . For the SNCC came out in support of Brooklyn
CORE . For the first time, the question of Black people disrupting
the system was advanced in the civil rights movement . This
tactic of Black people disrupting the economy, or a city of the
government was a different kind of tool . The stall-in was not
successful because it had been publicized in advance and the
police were waiting . 14
While the Stall-in was not successful, it raised questions of the possibility
of the movement disrupting the functioning of the system .
Two events occurred in March, 1964 that changed the
direction of the
black liberation movement . Malcolm X announced his independence from the
Nation of Islam and Robert F . Williams' article "Revolution Without Vio
lence," in the February, 1964 issue of Crusader reached the States .
Robert
Williams' article "Revolution Without Violence" raised many eyebrows . In
it he described how many blacks could bring the U .S . to a standstill through
urban rebellions and urban guerrilla warfare . This went beyond the concept
of armed self-defense .
Almost every activist was watching Malcolm's development to see
in
what direction he was heading .
Freeman from the BLF was at Malcolm's press
conference and encouraged him to proceed in a more radical direction .
Freeman decided it was time to challenge SNCC concerning the concepts of
armed self-defense and black nationalism on its own home grounds, the South .
He called Stanford to Cleveland and
gave him instructions to organize an
all-black student conference in the south . The BLF had connections with
nationalists who were inside local SNCC groups . One particular group was
the Afro-American Student Movement (ASM)
at Fisk University in Nashville,
Tenneessee .
14 Don Freeman, "Black Youth and Afro-American Liberation," Black
America , (Fall 1964), pp . 15-16 .