People have forgotten that the history of the 1960s civil rights movement was not just about non-violence. There was a group called the Deacons for Defense and Justice. They carried guns. They used them. As one of them put it: "[The Klan] found out that when they ride at night, we ride at night." (The FBI, predictably, was more upset at the idea of Black men with guns than they were at the violence being visited by the Klan.)
I had never head of them until I read the obituary of Robert Hicks.
I'll probably have to add this one to my book pile. As Zeno Deb likes to say, "self defense is a human right."
WWJD: What Would Jesus Drink?
1 hour ago
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Check out Robert Williams. Amazing story
For an old post on my blog.
http://polizeros.com/2008/01/16/forgotten-revolutionaries-of-the-civil-right-movement/
"Williams lived in North Carolina in the 50’s, and headed a local chapter of the NAACP. The Klan would often drive into the black part of town, opening fire on homes. Williams trained other Blacks in firearms usage. The next time the Klan rode in and opened fire, they received a disciplined volley of gunfire in return. No one was hurt, and the Klan never returned.
He played a major role in making an international cause of the 1958 “Kissing Case.” Two black boys, 7 & 9-years old, were accused of rape for the “crime” of kissing a 9-year-old white girl. (Yes, that's how insane things were then.)
In 1962, Williams wrote “Negroes With Guns,” which had a major influence on Huey Newton & the Black Panthers.
In the early 60’s he learned that the FBI and a multitude of other police were looking for him, so he moved to Cuba. From Cuba, he broadcast a radio show “Radio Free Dixie” which reached into the southern US. He then moved to China, where he was a honored guest of the government.
He returned to the US in 1969, and worked as a China scholar. In that rarest of occurrences for a revolutionary and freedom fighter, he died peacefully and in his retirement years – in 1996 at age 71 holding hands with his wife of forty nine years.
He was buried in a suit given to him by Mao Zedong. Rosa Parks spoke at the funeral, saying she and those who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama “always admired Robert Williams for his courage and his commitment to freedom. The work he did should go down in history and never be forgotten.”"
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