“The forceful anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells Barnett wrote in 1892, a Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.” – This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed
Racial violence and fears from a deadly virus resulted in a record 20 million guns sold thus far this year, with first-time gun owners accounting for a staggering 40 percent. Blacks themselves experienced a nearly 60 percent increase in gun purchases from the same period last year. Guns in the hands of blacks are not a new phenomenon, instead, they date back to the early struggle for civil rights. Although most of us are familiar with the use of nonviolence following the end of slavery, guns played an increasing role as the freedom movement fought to obtain full citizenship rights. Their importance as a means of self-protection in the past still applies today.
Nonviolence and armed resistance were at times, complicated bedfellows. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously preached nonviolence as a higher means of dealing with white oppression, a show of “strength through peace”. And while nonviolence was effective in obtaining civil rights legislation, it had its limits. Lynchings still occurred and were carried out without fear of repercussion. Freedom fighters, believing guns were a fail-safe in the battle over the growing violence of the time, often rebuffed MLK’s wishes for passivity. And although these activists never promoted outright violence themselves, they did recognize the benefit of having a little protection in their hour of need.
At times guns were either outright banned or required registration, a special problem for blacks. Registering would alert authorities of where and with whom weapons were located. Guns posed additional problems for blacks who were regularly stopped and searched. A gun found in their possession would confirm suspicion of insurrection or simply be used as an excuse to arrest or harass.
Inciting fear was the white racist’s greatest tactic against blacks. Ironically, black soldiers returning from the war provided a turning point in the battle. War experience and mastery of weapons gave them the confidence and discipline they previously lacked. Ready to assert their newfound power, these veterans served as armed guards for black citizens attempting to vote or simply wishing to protest. Merely brandishing a weapon, at times, was enough. Guns would serve as a guardian to protect their activities, not as weapons of warfare. Black guns saved lives and allowed the movement to continue.
In Charles E. Cobb, Jr.’s 2014 book, “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed”, Cobb gives a thorough history of the civil rights movement by recounting numerous stories of nonviolent black resistance through community organizing, sit-ins, and voter registration drives through the south. An activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Cobb also shows how growing violence against black activists drove acceptance of armed black defense. It was a Mississippi farmer who spoke these words to MLK, Jr., in 1964, “This nonviolent stuff ain’t no good. It’ll get you killed”. Despite MLK’s enormous success, in the end, he was right, MLK, Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
Today, Black Guns Matter, a non-profit educational organization founded in 2016 by Maj Toure, is continuing the tradition of black empowerment through the education of the Second Amendment in largely urban areas. Blacks continue to lag whites in total firearm ownership at a time when violence in urban areas rivals the kind of violence seen by the KKK in times past. While the modern-day struggle is different, blacks are becoming reacquainted with guns as a means of self-protection and safety.
In 1975, US President Ronald Reagan wrote the following, “The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small person with a gun is equal to a large person, but it is a great equalizer in another way, too. It ensures that the people are the equal of their government when that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed.” This is a lesson learned the hard way by the numerous martyrs of the civil rights movement. We should celebrate the return of guns into the hands of black patriots as they continue to defend their full citizenship rights.
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