Negroes with Guns
Robert Williams played an important role in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and early 1960s. While he was the president of Monroe, North Carolina NAACP and following the non-violent struggle of Dr. Martin Luther King, he was also participating in militant tactics to advance the cause of racial integration. His book Negroes with Guns offer glaring examples of the marriage between militancy and peaceful struggle with incidence of highhandedness of police authorities and white supremacists. Gun control and other issues take a center stage in this struggle as the country is still debating the pros and cons of gun possession. Guns as a tool for self-defense played an important role during the civil rights movement and their significance remains in contemporary times.
Robert Williams life story and participation in the civil rights movement sheds light on the social and economical aspects of that era and emphasize the hatred of the southern whites towards their former slaves. They were not ready to give up their centuries-old supremacy and mastership over blacks despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had abolished slavery in 1863.
There were many social and economical currents running beneath the peaceful and often violent struggle of blacks to achieve their rights. Williams home state of North Carolina turned into a battleground for both the colored and whites.
Monroe had a population of 11,000 in 1955 of which around one-fourth were blacks. The town also had the headquarters of the southeastern command of Ku Klux Clan. The area was home to major activities of white supremacists and blacks were living in deplorable conditions. Only 4 of them had registered as voters and most had accepted their status as second-class citizens of the United States.
Amid all these conditions, Williams landed in Monroe after serving in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He had already seen the discrimination and segregation while serving in the military and was ready to take on the challenges of racial integration.
Williams struggle started with joining the local chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
It all started with harmless picketing at the Monroe swimming pool, which, of course, was whites-only. Blacks started picketing at the pool in hopes of finally winning a permission to use it along with their white neighbors. Expectedly, this drew the ire of local KKK and they started their counter-picketing attacks.
Williams had already established Black National Guard by then to protect colored people from KKK attacks. The latter had started using night raids and shotgun firing as a mean to deter black picketers. When they saw no scaling back of picketing, they started campaigning for large-scale attacks. Some reports of that time suggested that as many as 15,000 whites had gathered in Monroe with regular meetings and cross burnings.
Clashes ensued though Williams ordered his cadre to only use guns as a tool of self-defense and never as a tool of provocation. He ordered the setting up of shelters in blacks homes to protect them from the bullets of white supremacists the latter regularly used to enter black neighborhoods and terrorize the inhabitants.
Williams narrative explains in detail the use of guns as an essential tool of self-defense and the importance of militant struggle along with peaceful campaigns. Local police and FBI had condoned these attacks and blacks had no other option but to possess guns as per their second amendment rights.
Gun control is a hotly debated issue in the United States and proponents of gun rights argue that it is the best way to ensure ones safety during turbulent times. Opponents, however, argue that state protection is enough to guarantee ones security.
Williams book has a clear tilt towards the first group the proponents of individual ownership of guns as he thinks that armless men can become easy targets of criminals and rioters.
He elaborates his theory by citing the main event that prevented bloodshed in Monroe. White supremacist had gathered in large numbers in response to the arrival of Freedom Riders from the north. While these Freedom Riders came with the non-violence message of Martin Luther King Jr., Minute Men and other armed organizations of white men were ready to confront them. A large crowd gathered at the Monroe courthouse they taunted, and hurled slurs at Freedom Riders with threats to kill them. With no police protection in sight as local police chief was a major sympathizer of KKK Williams group had to take things in their own hands.
They used guns as their tool of self-defense but still did not open fire on whites. It was only after threats of violence that two state troopers came to the rescue of Freedom Riders. Whites were obviously enraged at this state protection of Negroes and a white couple decided to test the limits of black tolerance by driving through their neighborhood with racist flags attached on their car. Blacks stopped them and took them hostage but Williams provided them asylum in his house and tamed the mounting anger of the black community that had otherwise killed the couple.
The self-defense strategy of Williams averted any massacre and rioting but plotting whites entangled him in kidnapping charges of the white couple. He had to flee the town and ultimately the state to avoid arrest and ultimately sought asylum in Cuba and then China.
While he was not involved in the later part of the civil rights movement which most historians consider the zenith of racial struggle in America he led the armed self-defense that also earned him the ire of the national leadership of NAACP. They suspended him for six months and leveled other charges against him.
Irrespective of his later travails and asylums in Cuba and China, Williamss initial struggle and use of arms as an essential means of self-defense provided ample security to local blacks who otherwise might have died thanks to the massive gathering of KKK and other white supremacist organizations at the time.
Another context of gun rights for self-defense is evident from the fact that black political struggle for civil rights was largely non-violent but riots did break out in areas where they met extreme resistance. There were some black armed militias, including Williams group, but each of these armed groups require a separate analysis as each of them had separate ideology.
Strain (2005) has dissected the historical perspective of blacks using guns as a tool of self-defense during the civil rights movement. Apart from Williams famous quote when he said that, violence must be met with violence, there are other examples of black militarism during the time.
Local laws and statutes of that era allowed the use of guns as a tool of defense as long as they were loaded and publicly displayed. Southern culture, with its emphasis on All American macho culture and guns, was unable to comprehend the non-violent tactics of black civil rights activists. Most assumed that the movement would wither away and KKK and other groups started congregating to confront peaceful black activists and to lynch a few to end the movement.
Williams, Malcolm X, Black Panther Party and other militant organizations and individuals surfaced as a direct reaction of the non-violent and Gandhi-inspired policies of MLK. They wanted a direct confrontation with a major chunk among them only going as far as keeping guns as tools of self-defense. A minority group was more interested in bloody confrontation and retribution. Both ideologies prevailed but the first group was able to take charge in most cases and thus avoided any large scale rioting or massacres.
Strain emphasizes that the amalgamation of militancy in civil rights empowered the otherwise disenfranchised youth but also created serious problems for the society. Nation of Islam and other groups preached hatred towards whites that created difficulties for people who were working towards an amicable desegregation and broader social acceptance of blacks.
He, however, also argues that use of guns as self-defense and Williams policies averted massacres and played an important role in North- and South Carolina where black farmers were not active in the civil rights movements before his arrival at the center stage of the movement. Williams himself describes that only 4 of blacks were registered as voters and there were only a few members of the local NAACP chapter before he took the matters into his own hands.
Kleck (2005) argues that the main reason behind gun possession is for self-defense and always has been since their invention. Post civil rights gun possessions rates in the United States have dwindled but not to a degree where one can assume that people are no longer interested in keeping guns.
Local conditions at the time permitted the use of guns, especially in the southern states where KKK had a massive presence and blacks were facing daily beatings and social and economic boycott. Kleck, however, opines that guns exacerbated problems instead of solving issues.
He has mostly focused on the contemporary gun control laws and gun possession trends to analyse changes in public perceptions and their correlation with crime rates. As a tool of self-defense, guns have not been able to reduce crimes. According to figures quoted in Klecks book, Americans use guns for self-defense for as high as one million times in a year. With an average of 4 Americans possessing guns, this ratio is quite high.
He also argues that it is the duty of law enforcement agencies to provide ample security to every citizen instead of the latter depending on its own firepower.
While one can debate the contemporary gun possession trends ad infinitum and many points raised by Kleck holds water, civil rights era was a different time. Gun possession helped blacks in the southern states to ward off attacks by white supremacists. There were some incidents of rioting but overall the situation remained calm and the loss of life was not a great as it would have been had blacks relied solely on non-violent struggle.
Even in Monroe alone, casualty rate would have been significant as high as in hundreds in absence of a basic defense policy adopted by Williams and his compatriots. They were able to strive for their rights in a mostly peaceful manner despite the fact that local police and FBI agents had visible tilt towards whites and they were not ready to let go of Williams and other black leaders easily.
Gun control is necessary but it should not come at the expense of reduced security for ordinary citizens of the United States. Blacks and racial minorities still face discrimination in law enforcement and complete gun riddance might result in serious consequences (Jacobs, 2002). Blacks proved that they can use guns as an effective means of self-defense during the movement and others can learn some lessons from that period, especially those that are averse to gun possession for any purpose.
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