DOCSLIB.ORG

This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed HISTORY $27.99 US / $31.00 CAN COBB ALLISON Advance Praise for THIS NONVIOLENT STUFF’LL GET YOU KILLED “Powerfully and with great depth, Charles Cobb examines the organizing tradition of the southern PDF KM 1/17 THIS NO THIS THIS isiting Martin Luther King Jr. at the peak of the PE Freedom Movement, drawing on both his own experiences as a field secretary with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) working in the rural Black-Belt South and contemporary Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, journalist William 1/17 V PDF CG AUTHOR conversations with his former coworkers. While Cobb challenges the orthodox narrative of Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. “Just for self- 3/12 the ‘nonviolent’ movement, this is much more than a book about guns. It is essential reading.” defense,” King assured him. It was not the only weapon King —JULIAN BOND, NAACP Chairman Emeritus Possible Movement Rights Civil the Made Guns How kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the AC reverend’s home as “an arsenal.” “When night riders attacked his home, twentieth-century Mississippi civil rights leader Hartman N Like King, many ostensibly “nonviolent” civil rights CH Turnbow ‘stood his ground’ and lit up the night to protect his family. Charles Cobb’s ‘stand VIOLE NONVIOLENT activists embraced their constitutional right to self- your ground’ book, timely, controversial, and well documented, contravenes a history as old as protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American George Washington and Andrew Jackson and as new as George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn. NC Don’t miss it.” —BOB MOSES, former director of SNCC’s Mississippi voter registration program freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In and founder and president of the Algebra Project This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar CG NT Charles E. Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed is a powerful mixture of history and memoir, a scholarly self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black LH and emotionally engaging account of a dark time in our recent history. This is one of those books communities in America during the southern Freedom that is going to have people from across the political spectrum buying it for different reasons. One ST Movement of the 1960s. In the Deep South, blacks often © John Abromowski for Brown University STUFF’LL can hope that those on both left and right can learn from this book.”—CLAYTON E. CRAMER, author TJK safeguarded themselves and their loved ones from white CHARLES E. COBB JR. of Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie GE UFF’LL is a former National supremacist violence by bearing—and, when necessary, Geographic magazine staff writer and a former field secretary “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed jostles us outside the ho-hum frame of ‘pick up a gun’ using—firearms. In much the same way, Cobb shows, AL for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and vs. ‘turn the other cheek.’ Charles Cobb’s graceful prose and electrifying history throw down nonviolent civil rights workers received critical support has also served as a Visiting Professor in Brown University’s a gauntlet: can we understand any part of the freedom struggle apart from America’s unique from black gun owners in the regions where they worked. 6.25” x 9.5” Department of Africana Studies. A veteran journalist, he is romanticization of violence and gun culture? This absorbing investigation shows how guns are Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their S: 1-1/16” often necessary, but not sufficient, to live out political democracy.”—WESLEY HOGAN, Director, an inductee of the National Association of Black Journalists homes, or firing back at attackers, these courageous men and B: 7/8” Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University GET YOU Hall of Fame, and his reporting has won multiple awards. women and the weapons they carried were crucial to the T BASIC Cobb lives in Jacksonville, Florida. movement’s success. “Blending compelling experience with first-rate scholarship, Charles Cobb traces the way that KILLED YOU HC armed self-defense and nonviolent direct action worked sometimes in tension but mostly in tandem Giving voice to the World War II veterans, rural in the African American freedom struggle. Crafted with powerful clarity and engaging prose, activists, volunteer security guards, and members of self- 4/C Cobb’s book deploys the intellectual insights of both everyday people and excellent historians to defense groups who took up arms to defend their lives and FINISH: make the case that it wasn’t necessarily ‘non-nonviolent’ to pack a pistol or tote a shotgun in the liberties, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed lays bare Gritty over pgs civil rights-era South—but grassroots activists often found it necessary. This is easily the best, the paradoxical relationship between the nonviolent civil mylar w/ pgs most accessible, and most comprehensive book on the subject.”—TIMOTHY B. TYSON, author of Radio KILLED mylar showing rights struggle and the Second Amendment. Drawing on Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power and Blood Done Sign My Name on the title, his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement $27.99 US / $31.00 CAN author name, ISBN 978-0-465-03310-2 How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb provides a and guns on 5 2 7 9 9 cover A Member of the Perseus Books Group controversial examination of the crucial place of firearms Jacket design by Allison Chi www.basicbooks.com CHARLES E. COBB JR. in the fight for American freedom. 9 7 8 0 4 6 5 0 3 3 1 0 2 9780465033102-text_CobbDesign 3/16/14 10:33 PM Page a More Advance Praise for This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed “What most of us think we know about the central role of nonviolence in the long freedom struggle in the South is not so much wrong as blinkered. Or so Charles Cobb says in this passionate, intellectually disciplined reordering of the conven- tional narrative to include armed self-defense as a central component of the black movement’s success. Read it and be reminded that history is not a record etched in stone by journalists and academics, but a living stream, fed and redirected by the bottom-up witness of its participants.”—Hodding Carter III, Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Popular culture washes the complexity out of so many things. Charles Cobb works mightily against that torrent. This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed shows that the simplistic popular understanding of the black Freedom Movement obscures a far richer story. Cobb defies the popular narrative with accounts of the grit and courage of armed stalwarts of the modern movement who invoked the ancient right of self- defense under circumstances where we should expect nothing less. This book is an important contribution to a story that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.”—Nicholas Johnson, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School, and author of Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms “This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed is the most important movement book in many years. Charles Cobb uses long-standing confusion over the distinction between violence and nonviolence as an entrée to rethinking many fundamental misconceptions about what the civil rights movement was and why it was so pow- erful. This level of nuance requires a disciplined observer, an engaged participant, and a lyrical writer. Cobb is all these.”—Charles M. Payne, author of I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle “Any book that has as its central thesis that armed self-defense was essential both to the existence and the success of the civil rights movement is bound to stir up controversy. But Charles Cobb, combining the rigor of a scholar with the experience (and passion) of a community organizer, has made his case. This book is a major contribution to the historiography of the black freedom struggle. More than that, it adds a new chapter to the story of the local people who, often armed, protected the organizers and their communities during the turbulent civil rights years.” —John Dittmer, author of Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi 9780465033102-text_CobbDesign 3/16/14 10:33 PM Page b “Charles Cobb’s This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed is a marvelous contribution to our understanding of the modern black freedom struggle. With wonderful storytelling skills and drawing on his unparalleled access to movement partici- pants, he situates armed self-defense in the context of a complex movement and in conversation with both nonviolence and community organizing. Cobb writes from personal experience on the frontlines of SNCC’s voter registration work while also using the skills of a journalist, historian, and teacher. The result is a compelling and wonderfully nuanced book that will appeal to specialists and, more importantly, anyone interested in human rights and the freedom struggle.” —Emilye Crosby, author of A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi and editor of Civil Rights History from the Ground Up “This long overdue book revises the image of black people in the South as docile and frightened. It tells our story, demonstrating that black people have always been willing to stand their ground and do whatever was necessary to free themselves from bondage and to defend their families and communities.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Georgia Voter Identification Requirement: Is It a Form of Voter Disenfranchisement?
    The Georgia Voter Identification Requirement: Is it a Form of Voter Disenfranchisement? by LaKerri ReJai Mack A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama May 7, 2012 Keywords: racism, voter disenfranchisement, voter fraud, voting rights, voter photo identification, Georgia Copyright 2012 by LaKerri ReJai Mack Approved by Christa Slaton, Chair, Dean of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Auburn University Caleb Clark, Co-chair, Alumni Professor of Political Science, Director of the M.P.A. Program Clifton Perry, Hudson Professor of Political Science Denise Davis-Maye, Associate Professor of Sociology at Auburn University-Montgomery Abstract As an American citizen, my observation reveals that access to the franchise has been prohibited or limited for African Americans and the poor since 1863. Congress and the Supreme Court have been consistent in their legislation and rulings that assume voting rights are given and made equally accessible to all American citizens since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, there remains a gap in the current literature regarding modern-day tactics and forms of voter disenfranchisement. For some, voter photo identification requirements, particularly those outlined in Georgia Law O.C.G.A. § 21-2-417, are an early 21st century version of voter disenfranchisement for the poor and minorities. To others, it is perceived as a method to prevent voter fraud. In this qualitative study, I explore the historical voting experiences and practices in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans
    Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans Equal Justice Initiative “It is impossible to create a dual personality which will be on the one hand a fighting man toward the enemy, and on the other, a craven who will accept treatment as less than a man at home.” 1 Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans Equal Justice Initiative 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, Alabama 36104 334.269.1803 www.eji.org © 2016 by Equal Justice Initiative. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, mod - ified, or distributed in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without express prior written per - mission of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). EJI is a nonprofit law organization with offices in Montgomery, Alabama. Opposite: At Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, circa 1865. (Library of Congress/Liljenquist Family Collection.) On the cover: Soldiers of the 369th Infantry who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919. 1 The end of the Civil War marked a new era of racial ter - ror and violence directed at black people in the United States that has not been adequately acknowledged or ad - dressed in this country. Following emancipation in 1865, thousands of freed black men, women, and children were killed by white mobs, former slave owners, and members of the Confederacy who were unwilling to accept the antici - pated end of slavery and racial subordi - nation. The violent response to freedom for former slaves was followed by decades of racial terror lynchings and targeted violence de - signed to sustain white supremacy and racial hierarchy.
    [Show full text]
  • Lynching in America Targeting Black Veterans
    LYNCHING IN AMERICA TARGETING BLACK VETERANS Soldiers of the 369th Infantry who won the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919. 2 lynching in america: targeting black veterans targeting in america: lynching It is impossible to create a dual personality which will “ be on the one hand a fighting man toward the enemy, and on the other, a craven who will accept treatment 1 as less than a man at home. ” At Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, circa 1865. (Library of Congress/Liljenquist Family Collection.) Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans Acknowledgments This report was written, researched, designed, and produced by the staff of 3 the Equal Justice Initiative. It builds on research and writing conducted by black veterans targeting in america: lynching dozens of our attorneys, research fellows, interns, and students over a period of several years. For the preparation of this report, I would like to especially acknowledge Andrew Childers, Jennifer Taylor, Jeanne Segil, Brooks Emanuel, and Judea Davis for research and writing. We are also grateful to Aaryn Urell for layout and editing and to Kiara Boone, Eric Brown, Jonathan Kubakundimana, and Noah Moyse for photo research and editing. – Bryan Stevenson, Director Equal Justice Initiative 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, Alabama 36104 334.269.1803 www.eji.org © 2017 by Equal Justice Initiative. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, modified, or distributed in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without express prior written permission of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). EJI is a nonprofit law organization with offices in Montgomery, Alabama.
    [Show full text]
  • Free at Last. a History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 414 364 UD 032 023 AUTHOR Bullard, Sara, Ed. TITLE Free at Last. A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle. INSTITUTION Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, AL. PUB DATE 1989-00-00 NOTE 107p. AVAILABLE FROM "Teaching Tolerance," The Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104 (1-9 copies, $2.75 each; 10-19 copies, $2.25 each; 20-99 copies, $1.75 each; 100 or more copies, $1.50 each). PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Biographies; *Black History; Black Leadership; *Civil Rights; Demonstrations (Civil); Elementary Secondary Education; Profiles; Racial Discrimination; *Racial Integration; Racial Segregation; *School Desegregation; Student Rights; United States History; Urban Schools ABSTRACT Along with the history of the civil rights movement, this publication, which is well suited for classroom use, tells the stories of those who died during that struggle. Their lives serve as examples of the many personal tragedies suffered for a movement that transformed America from a society in which blacks were routinely excluded from full citizenship to one that now recognizes, even if it has not fully realized, the equal rights of all citizens. The following sections are included: (1) "Early Struggles" through slavery: (2) "A Movement of the People," the Montgomery bus boycott and the Little Rock crisis; (3) "Confrontations," the efforts of freedom riders and civil rights marchers; (4) "Fighting for the Ballot," the struggle for voting rights in Mississippi and Alabama; and (5)"Days of Rage," urban rioting and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • Antiblackness in Military Higher Education at the United States Military Academy West Point
    The Vermont Connection Volume 42 Black Lives Matter: Centering Black Narratives in Higher Education Article 5 2021 Put Them in Boots: Antiblackness in Military Higher Education at the United States Military Academy West Point Khadija Boyd Northcentral University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Boyd, K. (2021). Put Them in Boots: Antiblackness in Military Higher Education at the United States Military Academy West Point. The Vermont Connection, 42(1). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol42/ iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Vermont Connection by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 42 • The Vermont Connection • 2021 • Volume 42 Put Them in Boots: Antiblackness in Military Higher Education at the United States Military Academy West Point Dr. Khadija Boyd Equality has been expounded upon by high-ranking military leaders since segregation was eliminated and the equal opportunity program was enacted ensuring that all military personnel were viewed and treated equally without prejudice. However, anti-blackness is a crisis for Black men and women who don the uniform at military academic institutions of higher education which has illustrated a sense of impartiality for Black cadets. Military colorblindness, the belief that dismisses racism in the military, is frequently used by white men in the top ranks because these leaders do not see racism as a problem.
    [Show full text]