Repression and Backlash

Abstract

Over the final months of 1973 and into early 1974, the office of Oregon Governor Tom McCall was inundated with letters from people around the country who wanted him to prevent the extradition of Ronald Williams to Alabama. Williams had fled to Oregon in 1972 while free on appeal bond following his conviction on assault charges that stemmed from the September 1970 “shootout” between the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and the ABLF. Among the correspondence that McCall received were letters from Amnesty International, the NAACP, the Civil Liberties Union, and the Urban League. Letters arrived not only from Oregon and Alabama, but also from New Hampshire, Florida, and Massachusetts. There were letters even from Canada and Australia. There was a letter from Wally Priestley, a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, and from Richard Arrington, then a member of the Birmingham City Council and soon to be its first black mayor. There were letters from journalists, lawyers, professors, clergy, college students, and business owners. And there were handwritten notes from Williams’ two young stepdaughters, including a poem that one of them had written about her stepfather’s situation.¹