Monday, January 21, 2013

Gun Rights Helped Blacks During Civil Rights Movement

By Seth Mason


Gun Rights Helped Blacks During Civil Rights Movement

That was one of my friend's Facebook update from this morning. It succinctly summarizes why American blacks should be on our side of the gun control debate. Unfortunately, the African-American community has forgotten how important gun rights were during the Civil Rights Movement.

Here's a personal account of how important they were for the late Robert Hicks, a former civil rights leader and activist in the Louisiana chapter of the Deacons for Defense and Justice:
The Klan would drive through our neighborhood shooting at us, shooting into our homes, and the police wouldn't help. The black men in the community wouldn’t stand for it. You shoot at us, we shoot back at you. I’m convinced that without our guns, my family and many other black people would not be alive today.
Exactly! Law enforcement wouldn't protect blacks during the movement, so blacks protected themselves with firearms. Law enforcement might come to the defense of African-Americans in 2013, but help is always precious minutes away in threatening situations. And let's be honest: blacks, many of whom live in high-density low-income environments, face threatening situations with greater frequency than other ethnic groups.

There are many examples of gun rights helping blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. Reason outlined some in an article published in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre:
In the wake of last week’s horrific mass murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the debate over the proper scope of gun rights and gun control has focused largely on the evil deeds some individuals have done with the help of firearms. That focus is understandable in the aftermath of this terrible event. But it’s important to also remember that privately-owned guns have often been a tremendous force for good in American history. For evidence of this, look no further than the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, where the right of armed self-defense played an indispensable role in the battle against Jim Crow.

“I’m alive today because of the Second Amendment and the natural right to keep and bear arms,”declared John R. Salter Jr., one of the organizers of the famous non-violent sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in Jackson, Mississippi. Writing in 1994, Salter noted that he always “traveled armed” while working as a civil rights organizer in the Deep South. “Like a martyred friend of mine, NAACP staffer Medgar W. Evers, I, too, was on many Klan death lists and I, too, traveled armed: a .38 special Smith and Wesson revolver and a 44/40 Winchester carbine,” Salter wrote. “The knowledge that I had these weapons and was willing to use them kept enemies at bay.”

Another prominent civil rights activist who championed the right to keep and bear arms was T.R.M. Howard of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, a surgeon and entrepreneur who was at the center of the trial and investigation into the shocking 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Here’s how I described Howard’s role in the Till case in a 2009 review of David and Linda Beito’s masterful biography Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power:
In the aftermath of Till’s murder, Howard put his considerable talents and resources to work. Recognizing that local officials had little incentive to identify or punish every member of the conspiracy that took Till’s life, he spearheaded a private investigation, personally helping to locate, interview, and protect several important witnesses. He also made his large, lavishly provisioned home available to the various out-of-state observers gathering in town for the trial, including Cloyte Murdock of Ebony magazine and Rep. Charles Diggs (D-Mich.)....
In addition to bankrolling and assisting the investigation, Howard served as a sort of chief of security, escorting [Till’s mother Mamie] Bradley, Diggs, and other witnesses and supporters to and from court each day in a heavily armed caravan. In fact, the Beitos write, security at Howard’s residence “was so impregnable that journalists and politicians from a later era might have used the word ‘compound’ rather than ‘home’ to describe it.” To put it another way, guns were stashed everywhere, including a Thompson submachine gun at the foot of Howard’s bed and a pistol at his waist. Howard understood all too well the deep ties between white supremacy and gun control. The first gun control laws in American history arrived during Reconstruction, when the former Confederate states attempted to deny emancipated blacks the right to acquire property, make contracts, vote, freely assemble, and keep and bear arms.
For more on the links between gun rights and the civil rights struggle, see herehere, and here.
It's unfortunate that 68% of American blacks support stronger gun control regulation. Gun rights were extremely beneficial to the African-American community throughout the Civil Rights Movement, which we celebrate today. In fact, if it weren’t for gun rights, more civil rights leaders would likely have been killed.

The above originally appeared at Ecominoes and is reprinted here with permission.

6 comments:

  1. With whites entering minority status perhaps "they" are well aware of this.

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  2. One would think the state's manifest failures at achieving its objectives would convince people to ditch the state-worshipping and begin to look to themselves. One would be wrong.

    The whole gun control debate is Exhibit A. The gun-grabbers ignore history, trust the government to protect them, and think we should all disarm for our own safety. A more naive position would be hard to imagine.

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  3. One would think the state's manifest failures at achieving its objectives would convince people to ditch the state-worshipping and begin to look to themselves. One would be wrong.

    The whole gun control debate is Exhibit A. The gun-grabbers ignore history, trust the government to protect them, and think we should all disarm for our own safety. A more naive position would be hard to imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another view is that the NRA didn't so much want to help blacks as it wanted to sell more guns! Just like the answer to Newtown shooting was to....drum roll please....sell more guns!

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  5. I'm reminded of the crazy person who shot and killed MLK with a legally obtained gun. ..

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  6. Some very good quotes in your article. But I am not sure I understand your reasoning for saying that the NRA helped any of the people whom you have quoted?

    ReplyDelete