Monroe Black history advocates pay homage to the past

NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN GUN ASSOCIATION

Robert F. Williams, a Monroe native and civil rights advocate who urged armed resistance against racial terrorism, is among the notable figures and events in the city's history celebrated by A Few Good Men Inc.

Black Panther leader Huey Newton credited him for sparking the Black Liberation Movement. 

When local and national media ignored injustices surrounding the 1958 “Kissing Case,” he successfully drew international attention. 

In 1957, alongside some 50 other armed men, he gave the Monroe Ku Klux Klan a dose of their own medicine that sent them scrambling. 

Malcolm X was a pen pal. He dined with Fidel Castro and was an honored guest of Mao Zedong. 

The man was Monroe native Robert F. Williams and if you haven’t heard of him, you aren’t alone. 

Despite having one of the most colorful lives born of the Civil Rights Movement, Williams has been largely forgotten by historians. Williams is just one thread woven into the fabric of Monroe’s significant African American history, but 30 years after his death, one organization is committed to ensuring these stories are told. 

“There has historically been a gap in how local history is documented and shared, particularly when it comes to the contributions of Black leaders,” said Eric Hall, president of A Few Good Men Inc., a nonprofit leading preservation of places and stories spanning Monroe’s Black history. 

“I want people to be knowledgeable of the [fact] that the city of Monroe made a difference. And we have some great people from here who made a difference,” said fellow A Few Good Men member Robert Heath, who is also a Monroe native. 

Their most recent endeavor, the production and printing of a historical marker guide brochure, is aimed at spreading the word to an even broader audience.

A Few Good Men Inc., founded in 1993, is dedicated to bolstering the African American community in educational, political and socio-economic spheres. 

“Our purpose is to serve the community through consistent and meaningful outreach by providing scholarships, supporting families, recognizing outstanding citizens, and creating opportunities that empower individuals,” Hall said.

For decades the nonprofit has held fundraisers to offer annual scholarships to Union County high school students, as well as food drives and college tours. The nonprofit also hosts an annual Citizen of the Year banquet to spotlight an individual who has made a significant local impact. Recently, supported by A Few Good Men Inc, Heath has made efforts to spotlight extraordinary Black people from the past. 

“Figures like Robert F. Williams played significant roles in shaping the community, but their stories were not always included in mainstream narratives,” Hall said. 

Another even more frequently overlooked civil rights activist is the late Dr. Albert E. Perry. 

Perry, a native of Texas, moved to Monroe in the early 1950s and set up a family physician practice serving Black clients. He and Williams united in their desire not only to establish true racial equality but to imbue Blacks with a sense of confidence and pride as a people. 

While neither man advocated wanton violence, they did support the notion of self-defense from racially motivated violence – a message not particularly popular with either side of the movement at the time. 
“Both men were strong believers of self-defense and not turning the other cheek,” Heath said. “During their time, the NAACP was not supportive of that type of language.” 

Heath feels that this more than anything contributes directly to why Williams and Perry’s names are frequently missing from historical accounts about the Civil Rights Era. 

“I believe that the mainstream media was scared to have strong Black men written about during that time,” Heath said, adding, “And [even] now.” 

“As a result, many people have grown up without full awareness of their impact,” Hall said, adding, “This is why our work is so important.”

Heath, who knew Williams personally, and several Williams family members, recounts a conversation he had with Williams’ son, John, when the younger Williams visited Monroe after his father's death.  
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John said, ‘There is nothing in Monroe that shows my father was ever even here,’” Heath relates, “And I said, ‘We’ve got to do something.’”

That was the launchpad for the tedious process of applying for a state marker to be placed in Williams’ honor along Highway 74, close to where Williams was born in 1925. 

With support from local librarian and historian Patricia Poland, Heath spent more than a year doing the research necessary for the application. The official marker was revealed in 2023. 

That marker is one of the six historic sites featured in a new brochure produced by A Few Good Men Inc. dedicated to drawing more interest to Monroe’s unique history. Another site, linked to Williams and Perry, is a marker near what used to be Monroe’s Lake Lee Park swimming pool. 

The pool, installed in the 1930s using primarily federal funds, was off limits to Black people. 

However, motivated by the Civil Rights Movement’s momentum across the South, local Black teens, with support from Williams and Perry, led “wade-ins” in 1957 and 1961. Under unrelenting pressure to act, the all-white Monroe town council voted to permanently close the pool rather than integrate it in 1961.

In short order the pool was drained, filled with cement and covered with earth. Prior to marker’s installation in 2022, visitors would be hard-pressed to find evidence it ever existed. For decades it has been part of the putting green at Monroe Country Club. 

Another site the brochure highlights is the birthplace of Dr. Christine Mann Darden, who after becoming an aeronautical engineer, was the first Black woman to be promoted to the senior executive service at NASA’s Langley Research Center. 

The most recent marker, installed in 2025, is located on Branch Street where former police Chief James F. Sutton’s birth home once stood. After serving in the military, Sutton, who was born in 1940, joined the Monroe Public Safety Department in 1967, rising through the ranks until his appointment as the first Black chief. 

Also highlighted in the brochure is a bronze buffalo statue placed on Winchester Avenue to commemorate the segregated Winchester High School, which served Black students from 1923-66, when most of the building was destroyed by fire under suspicious circumstances just prior to court-ordered desegregation to begin. 

Heath helped raise thousands of dollars for the statue primarily through former students. It was installed in 2015. 

In 2021, a marker was placed in the 800 block of West Windsor Street to commemorate where the home and hospital once stood that were operated by Dr. John Massey, Monroe’s first Black physician. 

Born in South Carolina in 1866, Massey built what became known as the Quality Hill Sanitorium which opened its doors in 1912. It closed in 1939. Both buildings were destroyed by fire in 1985. 

“The brochure was created to highlight African American historical…locations where influential individuals lived and where significant events took place,” Hall said. “Our goal is to bring greater awareness to this history and ensure these stories are recognized and preserved.”

“[We need this] for our young kids,” Heath said. “We need documentation that we matter.” 

Heath, Hall and the other members of A Few Good Men Inc. hope the brochure will draw not just local interest but attract history lovers far beyond Union County. 

While the production and printing of the brochures is a major accomplishment, this is not by any means the end of A Few Good Men Inc’s endeavors. 

Heath, who has become somewhat of a local historian since retiring from over 30 years in the Miami-Dade School System and moving back to Monroe, already has his sights set on another potential landmark. 
“Personally, I’d like to see the citizens of Monroe support a statue of Robert F. Williams,” he said. “It would take a lot of collaboration and finances, but why not?” 

Copies of the African American Historic Landmarks brochure are at the Union County Library, Main Library at 316 East Windsor St. 

For more information about A Few Good Men Inc., visit AFewGoodMenNC.org or email: [email protected]. 

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