This book only has 86 pages on the site it says that this book has 128 whats up with that is this to political thats why there was a shortage of pages and even books someone get at me.

Robert F. Williams is a man who is forgotten in most histories of The Civil Rights Movement. He talked and practiced self-defense before Malcolm X became a household name. He represented the militant leadership that was to follow him in the form of SNCC and The Black Panther Party. He correctly showed the limits of integration and why everyone could not turn the other cheek.A must buy book.

This is a raw, powerful book about an aspect of the Civil Rights movement that your history teacher was not likely to have told you. Contrary to popular belief, the Civil Rights movement was not all about Dr. King and nonviolence (with all due respect). Robert Williams preached and practiced armed self-defense against the powers that be. Read his story and learn. It will shock and inspire you (this book also inspired Huey Newton and the Black Panther movement). For more about this unsung hero, read Timothy Tyson's "Radio Free Dixie."

First let me say that I rarely read non-fiction and even when I do, I rarely manage to finish an entire book of it. Democracy Betrayed is an exception. The writing was clear, precise, right-on, and interesting. And, perhaps most importantly, educational. I was born and raised in North Carolina and knew nothing--absolutely nothing--about the Wilmington Race Riots or the subject of Cecelski's essay Abraham Galloway. I am female and was a victim of gender based racial violence myself so I was aware of the issues raised in Gilmore's essay and White's essay, but I have never seen the issues written about so well. What I most like about this book is that it destroys stereotypes about class and race. After all isn't it the most well-to-do who most benefit from race violence so why should we be surprised to learn that it was not the so-called "white trash" who began the racial massacre in 1898, but the rich, the ones who were most likely to benefit from forcing the elected fusionist party officials out of office and placing themselves in their offices. I never knew--it certainly wasn't taught in my public school--that in 1896 every office in North Carolina was held by a progressive fusionist party member, elected by the fusion of lower class whites and blacks. Imagine how different this state would be, how advanced in talent and intelligence, if the massacre hadn't occurred, if black doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, newspaper editors and writers, etc, hadn't been forced from the state and if the elected officials had been allowed to remain in office. Perhaps what is most important is the book succeeds in "drawing public attention to the tragedy", a tragedy that is apparantly very much in the consciousness of Black Wilmington citizens and very much needs to be in the consciousness of all humans.

I think it was November 1997 that I drove to Detroit for a tribute to Robert F. William. When I arrived I learned that he had succumbed to cancer two weeks earlier. Although I had spoken to Williams briefly by telephone on a few occasions, I never had the opportunity to meet him personally, a fact that I deeply regret. I did meet his wife, Mabel, and found her to be the other half of Williams' heroic story. It was at the tribute, however, that Tyson announced that his biography of Williams would soon be completed and published. Although the biography was not published for another year or two, it was well worth the wait. Tyson is to be commended for a job well done in recognizing another face of the civil rights struggle that, although well known among AfroAmericans, never has received the publicity that the nonviolent movement did, and in recognizing Williams' significant contributions to the right of AfroAmericans to defend themselves against armed, violent racists, not all of whom wore sheets. This is a book that anyone interested in America's history, especially in what I consider its hidden or secret history that has only lately begun to be revealed, must have in their library.

My only criticism of the book is that Tyson did not offer more information about the details of Williams' sojourn in China and the agreement that ultimately allowed his return to the United States with his wife and children and free of the persecution of the FBI and local and state authorities. I'm sure that is a story by itself that is waiting to be told.

Read this book and William Ivy Hair's "Carnival of Fury: Robert Charles And The New Orleans Race Riot of 1900" available from the University of Louisiana Press. Get a new take on American history.

Excellent book! An important reminder of the fact that the history books left out a lot of important events and people. I had the privelege of once meeting a lady who knew Robert Williams as a child in Monroe NC and I was greatly inspired by this.

I hope this book encourages those who read it to seek out older peple who remember the Civil Rights movement so that they can learn more about what the history books "forgot" to mention.

Tyson's book focuses a long-overdue spotlight on the career of Robert F. Williams, an overlooked civil rights pioneer who indelibly stamped and shaped the movement during the '50s, '60s and beyond, but who has received precious little exposure, discussion or credit from the mainstream media. "Radio Free Dixie" goes a long way to setting the record straight.

The compelling thesis of "Radio Free Dixie" is that the civil rights struggle in the South featured a strong element of armed resistance against the forces of intimidation, led by the Klan, but legitimized by the legal structure of the southern states. Williams, from an early age, rejected the pacifist ideas and practices of Martin Luther King, arguing that blacks would never win their rights, much less any measure of respect until they were willing to demonstrate a willingness to defend themselves with arms. While most of the press and his supposed allies (King included) attempted to portray him as a violent revolutionary bent on overthrowing the government, Tyson convincingly shows that Williams was in fact a true believer in the U.S. constitution and that he never advocated initiating violence. Nor did his aggressive stance come from nowhere. Tyson shows that Williams' own family had a long history of determined and nonpacifist resistance, as did many other black families throughout the South.

This is also a stirring story of one community's fight against racism. The white community of Williams' Monroe, N.C. did everything it could to stop his efforts to integrate the town, but despite this, Williams built an extraordinary local chapter of the NAACP that relentlessly exposed the injustices daily heaped on blacks, even when the NAACP itself was refusing to recognize the activities of the chapter.

Tyson's book deserves accolades for exposing another layer of the complex history of the civil rights movement. The book is well-written and researched and full of genuine, yet balanced respect for its subject. A must-read for students of the civil rights movement and those searching for a real profile in courage.