3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives 3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
civil, and human rights, and as such, rcprcaented a crucial dimension of any civil rights agenda, as some activists realized . The simple act of defending one's person in many ways came to symbolize the larger quest for Afro-American rights and racial equality. In defending oneself, one was helping to uplift the race . In this sense self-defense took on aspects of communalism within Afro-American communities during this period ; however, Robert Williams, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and Ahmed Evans also illustrated the difficulties in transforming self-defense from a course of individual prerogative into a programmatic course of action . When activists began to organize around the concept of self-defense, the threat of violence inherent in such an agenda eclipsed its own practicality, because few Americans--black or white--could distinguish between the violence of racial animosity and the necessary force of self-protection . At the time, only a few activists seemed to realize the falseness of the violent/nonviolent dichotomy, including Fred Brooks of SNCC, who said in 1967 : Before, we went into the South with nothing but prayers and love, and they burned our churches down, they burned our houses down . But when people decided that they no longer would accept the philosophy of nonviolence but would begin to protect themselves, things changed. They stopped burning down our churches, they stopped harassing us, they stopped beating us because they knew that if they hit us we were gonna hit back . So I think as far as the technique gas, violence versus nonviolence--in fact, I don't even like to look at it like that, I like to look at it : nonviolence versus self-protection, and I think from that change, we benefited trcmendously . 3 Brooks shrewdly discerned the difference between self-defense and what others called "violence ." A CORE worker, Mike Lesser, writing to a friend, described the arming of 3Frcd Brooks, interviewed by John Britton, November 29, 1967, Nashville, Tennessee, audiotape ; Ralph J . Bunche Oral History Collection (Civil Rights Documentation Project), Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University . 198
lacks in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana : But the really beautiful thing to see and be a pact of is the movement-the spirit, the people, the courage, and the shotguns [emphasis added] . We hold instruction clinics in a Masonic Hall . . . two evenings a week, and if any hostile white folks should ever try to approach the place without warning they would find themselves faced by 15-20 high-powered, long-range shotguns . . . At first when we started going to the courthouse some of our people were beaten and threatened. Bust as soon as Negroes started carrying shotguns . . . the attacks stopped and haven't resumed . . . Incidentally, so you don't get the wrong idea, we arc preaching nonviolence, but Bonnie Moorc and I and the other workers can only preach nonviolence, and practice it . We cannot tell someone not to defend his property and the lives of his family, and let me tell you, those 13-20 shotguns guarding our meetings are very reassuring 4 Both Brooks and Lesser seamed to recogniu and value the nuance between aggressive violence and the use of force in self-protection ; however, many demonstrators had difficulty distinguishing between the finer points of self-defense and retributive violence . They refused to consider the use of foc+ce on a continuum, preferring instead the either-or choices of violence or nonviolence, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, war or peace . Compounded by the insistent portrayal of nonviolence by many media sources as "passive resistance" and self-defense as "violence," the dichotomy of violence versus nonviolence became entrenched in civil rights lore. Furthermore, armed self-defense presented a number of sticky problems-four, in particular, in addition to the seemingly glaring contradiction of the use of 1ircarms by activists in a self-described "nonviolent movement ." First, in certain situations, resorting to force in self-defense was gratuitous, shading into retribution, retaliation, and revenge . In their latter years, the Black Panthers exemplified this misappropriation of self-defense. 4August Meer and Elliot Rudwick, CORE: A Studv in the Civil Ri¢hts Movement . 1942-1968 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 263-264. 199
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- Page 245 and 246: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ~~un~~r~ws a~
- Page 247 and 248: W"C~"Y//iO~ ~JYL7///~O{i California
- Page 249 and 250: Knight, Jack C. "Reckoning with Vio
- Page 251 and 252: Belknap, Michael R. Feral Law and S
- Page 253 and 254: Crcnshaw, Kimberlie. Critical Race
- Page 255 and 256: Grant, Joanne . Hlack Pnxsst : Iist
- Page 257 and 258: McCord, William, John Howard, Berna
- Page 259 and 260: Reddick, Lawt+ence D. Crusader With
- Page 261 and 262: Wilkins, Roy and Ramsey Clark . Sea
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lacks in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana :<br />
But the really beautiful thing to see <strong>and</strong> be a pact of is the movement-the spirit,<br />
the people, the courage, <strong>and</strong> the shotguns [emphasis added] . We hold instruction<br />
clinics in a Masonic Hall . . . two evenings a week, <strong>and</strong> if any hostile white folks<br />
should ever try to approach the place without warning they would find themselves<br />
faced by 15-20 high-powered, long-range shotguns . . . At first when we started<br />
going to the courthouse some of our people were beaten <strong>and</strong> threatened. Bust as<br />
soon as Negroes started carrying shotguns . . . the attacks stopped <strong>and</strong> haven't<br />
resumed . . . Incidentally, so you don't get the wrong idea, we arc preaching<br />
nonviolence, but Bonnie Moorc <strong>and</strong> I <strong>and</strong> the other workers can only preach<br />
nonviolence, <strong>and</strong> practice it . We cannot tell someone not to defend his property<br />
<strong>and</strong> the lives of his family, <strong>and</strong> let me tell you, those 13-20 shotguns guarding our<br />
meetings are very reassuring 4<br />
Both Brooks <strong>and</strong> Lesser seamed to recogniu <strong>and</strong> value the nuance between aggressive<br />
violence <strong>and</strong> the use of force in self-protection ; however, many demonstrators had<br />
difficulty distinguishing between the finer points of self-defense <strong>and</strong> retributive violence .<br />
They refused to consider the use of foc+ce on a continuum, preferring instead the either-or<br />
choices of violence or nonviolence, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, war or peace .<br />
Compounded by the insistent portrayal of nonviolence by many media sources as "passive<br />
resistance" <strong>and</strong> self-defense as "violence," the dichotomy of violence versus nonviolence<br />
became entrenched in civil rights lore.<br />
Furthermore, armed self-defense presented a number of sticky problems-four, in<br />
particular, in addition to the seemingly glaring contradiction of the use of 1ircarms by<br />
activists in a self-described "nonviolent movement ." First, in certain situations, resorting<br />
to force in self-defense was gratuitous, shading into retribution, retaliation, <strong>and</strong> revenge .<br />
In their latter years, the Black Panthers exemplified this misappropriation of self-defense.<br />
4August Meer <strong>and</strong> Elliot Rudwick, CORE: A Studv in the Civil Ri¢hts Movement .<br />
1942-1968 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 263-264.<br />
199
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