Since the beginning of slavery in America, the African-American community has faced oppression and racism by white supremacists. Throughout the history of the nation, African-American men and women have used guns to help defend themselves and protect their communities against White Terror. The tradition of armed self-defense in the African-American community originally began in the Colonial Era and continued into the 1960s. The nonviolent Freedom Movement and The Civil Rights movement during the 1960s allowed for progression in society for the African-American community. While inequality and segregation still had a large influence on society during these years, many prominent African-American leaders organized large movements that advocated for social justice reform. The dedication and resilience of African-American leaders led to the government granting long-awaited rights to the African-American community. Former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) member, Charles E. Cobb Jr, is the author of the novel, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible. In the novel, Cobb explains the role of guns and other forms of armed self-defense in the Civil Rights Movement. Cobb believes that armed self-defense used during the movement did not directly conflict with the practices used in the nonviolence part of the Civil Rights Movement, but instead, both strategies played significant roles in the overall success of the movement and the incorporation of firearms made the Civil Rights Movement possible.
Today, the Civil Rights Movement is portrayed as a mostly nonviolent movement. Although nonviolent practices occurred such as marches, boycotts, and sit-ins, leaders such as Malcolm X. and W. E. B. Dubois were notorious for using violent practices that implemented the use of guns. However, a majority of violent oppression in modern-day history books is ignored. National organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were remembered for their nonviolent activism. Surprisingly, many members of these organizations did use varying levels of self-defense including the use of guns when necessary while engaging in the Freedom Movement. Civil rights activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, were remembered for advocating for social reform in their communities through nonviolent protests and marches. However, Martin Luther King Jr. carried a gun around during protests for self-protection and had an arsenal of weapons in his home. Cobb explains, “Although nonviolence was crucial to the gains made by the freedom struggle...those gains could not have been achieved without the complementary and still underappreciated practice of armed self-defense” (Cobb 1).
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Cobb is a former member of the SNCC and incorporated personal anecdotes of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. His extensive knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement obtained through his experiences explains the life of African Americans in greater depth during the 1960s. Cobb explains, “As the 1960s opened, White-Supremacist terrorists… increased their attacks on civil rights workers and leaders...local and state governments supported this violence and it was largely ignored by the federal government” (Cobb 114). Civil rights leaders were under constant threat of White Terror such as the Ku Klux Klan and night riders. A branch of the NAACP was established in McComb in 1964 and that summer “more then a dozen bombings occurred in McComb” (Cobb 143). Cobb explained how the leaders of national organizations began to realize that their practices put members in danger of getting hurt or even killed.
The African-American community has been treated unfairly since the beginning of slavery in America. According to Cobb, the use of armed self-defense originated during the colonial period. During this time, one of the first laws enacted against African Americans made it illegal for any black person, free or enslaved, to own a gun. The Civil War was seen as a turning point because, during the war, African-American soldiers were allowed to use guns to kill white oppressors. In 1863 after the battle of Nashville, “Union General George Thomas, seeing many black bodies pressed right up against the confederate fortifications, declared ‘Gentlemen, the question is settled; Negroes will fight” (Cobb 40). For the first time in American history, African Americans were able to become soldiers and fight bravely in the war. However, this demonstrates the irony of how African-Americans were given guns to fight in the war that protects all citizens of America but there was a law against them owning guns for their protection in everyday life that violates their Second Amendment right.
During World War I and World War II, many African-American males were drafted into the military due to the requirements of the Selective Service Act. As a result, many African Americans gained respect from white Americans by courageously serving the country as members of the Tuskegee Airmen or combat troops. As tensions arose, the image of the African-American community shifted during World War II as black wartime veterans created a strong masculine image for their community. Cobb states that these wartime veterans vowed to “no longer be intimidated or pushed around and not to submit to old, familiar restrictions and oppressions ordained by white supremacy,” (Cobb 85). This led to tensions between radical violent activists and the national campaign as a result of contradicting ideologies of violence. Many African American veterans became more proactive in applying pressure to the government at both the federal and state levels. They wanted lawmakers to end racial oppression in society. The younger generation of the African-American community changed the approach used to spark progression in the Freedom Movement. Their ideas were distinctly different than their parents’ practices because they utilized more radical practices such as marches, violence, and even imprisonment to bring attention to the racial inequalities within the United States. The African-American leaders of this generation believed in resisting white supremacy through the use of armed self-defense. The progress that black veterans and young African Americans made during the first half of the 1900s established the roots of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
As the Freedom Movement grew in size, the amount of armed self-defense utilized increased drastically. The first civil rights organization was The Deacons for Defense which committed their campaign to armed resistance. The group was created under the supervision of the CORE organization in the 1960s. Even though CORE’s ideology was a commitment to nonviolence, leaders of CORE’s practices used the Deacons to act as an armed security force for the members in attendance at their events. The protection that the Deacons were able to provide limited racial violence against the non-violent members participating. This gave CORE the ability to continue their work without large interruption problems. The dynamic between CORE and the Deacons is a perfect example of how the movement strategically used both nonviolent and armed self-defense practices in the overall success of the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1966, the Civil Rights Movement transitioned into the Black Power stage of the Movement. The Black Power movement was a belligerent approach to combat racial discrimination. Many nonviolent organizations didn’t have protection from federal and local governments therefore, many African Americans tolerated the use of Black Power to fight oppression. This trend also went along with an increased approval of armed self-defense to end racial oppression. This stage of the Civil Rights Movement generated fear among whites due to the violent encounters with police. This led to armed self-defense being portrayed as violent aggression rather than self-protection. Cobb describes this trend as the “unfortunate side effect of letting white hysteria distort what guns had meant in the earlier phases of blacks’ struggle for freedom and of twisting into unrecognizably the vital and laudable legacy of armed self-defense in black history” (Cobb 226). Cobb is saying that the fear generated by Black Power was mistaken as violent aggression when the use of guns during this time was for self-protection.
The tradition of armed self-defense in the African-American community was used throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The combination of nonviolent and violent practices by different African-American groups led to the overall success of the Freedom Movement. Without the use of guns for self-defense the Civil Rights movement wouldn’t have made as much progress as it did. Nonviolent protests wouldn’t have any form of protection and white supremacy would have led to even more African-Americans being harmed. Cobb explains, “Protect and secure black life in America… has never centered on the question of non-violence versus violence,” but rather on the simple question of what would they do to survive (Cobb 145). The Civil Rights Movement gave African Americans a brighter outlook for the future in America and it wouldn’t have been possible without the use of guns.
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