MONROE, N.C. – Thousands of Ku Klux Klan members terrorized communities in Monroe, NC until one man dared to fight back. Robert Williams’ courageous approach even landed him on the FBI’s watch list.

Williams’ son Frank remembers his father telling stories of the KKK, which by accounts made up nearly half of Monroe’s population at the time. Monroe was the headquarters of the southeastern brigade of the KKK.

“Ultimately he triumphed, over the adversity and the situation and the Klan did not win against him,” Frank Williams said.

The Klan organized lynchings and drive-by shootings while residents say police looked the other way.

“This wasn’t just the Klan as we think of them,” Frank Williams said. “It was even officials and everyone else there. So I was like, oh, this is a really bad place.”

Robert Williams served in the Army and Marines where he faced segregation and discrimination.

“He had a Grandmother that was born a slave and for a lot of different reasons, he wasn’t going to take that treatment,” Frank Williams said.

In 1950, Robert Williams was elected president of the Monroe NAACP, which is now the Union County NAACP. He lead efforts to integrate a publicly funded library and pool.

A historical marker tells part of the story where peaceful protesters faced gun fire.

Connie Williams, one of Williams’ cousins, wrote Audacity: Story of a Legendary Hero about Robert Williams.

“He wasn’t a violent man. He was a man trying to protect his wife and his family and his property, and he was doing something within the Constitution,” Connie Williams said.

The NAACP preferred justice through the courts, but Robert Williams dared to be different chartering a National Rifle Association Chapter in 1957. He trained 60 men called the Black Armed Guard to defend the community and use their second amendment rights.

“When he did get that right to carry a gun it was a good thing because it stopped a lot of the violence that was going on,” Connie Williams said.

Williams lead his group to take a stand against the Klan during a . Shortly after the showdown, Monroe City government banned Klan activity without a permit.

“They said these Blacks are starting to fight back and they thought this is going to be really bad, you know, so white people, for your own safety, no more Klan drive-bys anymore,” Frank Williams said.

Nearly 70 years after Robert Williams fought for integration and civil rights in his hometown, a state grant helped pay for a historical marker near Boyte Street and Roosevelt Blvd about 10 minutes from Downtown Monroe.

Robert Williams told his own story in the book Negroes with Guns. He exiled to Cuba in 1961 after being accused of false crimes and put on the FBI’s watch list. Williams broadcasted his program Radio Free Dixie from Cuba where he discussed the racial discrimination Black people faced in America. The state of NC dropped all charges against Williams in 1975. Williams died from cancer in 1996 and he is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Monroe.