3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

Robert Williams, fought back against white racists foroibly and swiftly. In the eyes of
those accustomed to immediate deference, her use of a weapon to defend her mother's
home must have seemed completely foreign . By staking a claim to life, she was asserting
her civil rights .
The philosophy of self-defense began to influence not only individuals but also
organizations . Some members of CORE edged away from the nonviolent ideal . In 1962,
two CORE field operatives, working outside the South, confessed that in meetings with
other CORE workers "we don't talk about nonviolence anymore ."~°~ Wilfrcd Ussery,
head of the San Franciso CORE chapter, told the local school board in September 1962,
"The crucial point for the Negro is that . . . with respect to violence, he is not starting
anything . . ."~°~ SNCC's fascination with nonviolence also proved to be rather fleeting .
Many young members of SNCC seemed ready to break from nonviolence in the early
1960's, soon after the organization's inception . Don Harris, a SNCC worker in southwest
Georgia during that group's early involvement there, estimated that between fifty and
seventy percent of the staff in 1961 and 1962 were opposed to strict adherence to
nonviolence . °~ With many nonviolent marches and protests, and the desegregation of
countless public accommodations in the South, the period 1957-1962 marked the high
~°~Inge Powell Hell, CORE and the Strategy of Nonviolence (New York : Random
House, 1968), 57 .
~°~San Francisco Chronicle (September 19, 1962) . [ARTICL.E 1'fTLE?]
~°~Emily S . Stoper, `"fhe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee : The Growth of
Radicalism in a Civil Rights Organization" (Ph.D . dies ., Harvard University, 1968), 38.
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