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

On a sweltering day in June 1964, the leadership cadre of 5NCC-about two dozen
core staff members, state directors, and field secretaries-gathered in the basement of
Frazier's Lounge in Atlanta to discuss the Mississippi Summer Project. Seated around
pitchers of iced tea, the discussants quickly turned to questions of self-defense and
nonviolence .3 ~ Charlie Cobb, a Howard University graduate and son of a United Church of
Christ minister, reported :
Threats of violence have been made to five of our Negro staff in Greenwood. Two of
them had guns given to them . One gun was placed in the office and two guns were
placed in the Freedom House . Dick Frcy, the only white member of our staff, is the
only nonnative Mississippian against guns. 32
This information sparked an attempt to clarify SNCC's policy on nonviolence . Revealing the
day-today difficulties in living out a commitment to nonviolence, Willie Peacock, a local
youth from the Delta, told of asking a local man to 1iro on anyone who broke into the
Freedom House . The man refused, and Peacock placed guns there "so that we could at least
guard the Freedom House at night." He was convinced that whites in Greenwood "are more
convinced than ever that they can kill a Negro and get away with it ." 33 Don Hams described
the six shootings in eighteen months in southwest Georgia where he was organizing . "At a
mass meeting two nights after the last shooting;' he said, "we talked about nonviolence but
the people walked out angry and frustrated." What right did he and the other staff members
3 ~The entirety of this discussion can be found in King, Freedom Sona, 311-323 .
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