William P. Randall oral history interview, December 10, 1993

Interviewed by Stephen Tuck. Among topics discussed: With a father who was executive secretary of the NAACP when it was an underground movement, Randall began his activism in protests against the board of education in the 1940s. He headed up the Crusaders, a protest organization comprised of prominent and financially independent black business leaders in Macon. He also helped to organize a Voters League in Macon, which called mass meetings in the churches. In addition, the Crusaders spearheaded the Citizens Registration Committee, and Randall was presented with an award from the NAACP for his efforts in Macon’s voter registration drives. With the Crusaders, and later as head of the NAACP and an officer of the SCLC, Randall was instrumental in organizing protest rallies and voter registration drives in the 1940s and 1950s. He mentions that the Council on Human Relations was the only interracial organization publicly in support of the black cause. By the 1960s he was involved in more direct protest action, such as sit-ins at lunch counters, and bus boycotts. At this time the NAACP and the SCLC were merged and the Macon-Bibb County Coordinating Committee was formed, under the chairmanship of Rev. Stevie Passel. Randall maintains that there were no rivalries between the three organizations because they were made up of the same people. But he mentions that the SCLC was formed by black ministers who petitioned white businesses for funds to build their churches, and therefore preached against the black movement from their pulpits. In addition, the NAACP, although conservative nationally, was radical in Macon, because its members recognized that this was the only way they could get things done. He recalls very little violence in the movement in Macon, and only a minor incident with Macon’s then mayor, Ronnie Thompson. After desegregation Randall focused on political action, especially the drive to get blacks and moderate whites elected to public office. Having broken up the Ku Klux Klan chapter in Macon, Randall recalls Klansmen from neighboring Jones County following his car at night, and shooting one hundred rounds of ammunition into his house. Randall maintains that being arrested for his protest activities demonstrated to blacks that they could survive arrest and being jailed, which further empowered the local black community to fight for the goals of the Civil Rights Movement.