This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed
-
-
4.5 • 6 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Visiting Martin Luther King Jr., at the peak of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, journalist William Worthy almost sat on a loaded pistol. Just for self defense, King assured him. It was not the only weapon King kept for such a purpose; one of his advisors remembered the reverend's Montgomery, Alabama home as an arsenal.
Like King, many ostensibly nonviolent civil rights activists embraced their constitutional right to self-protection—yet this crucial dimension of the Afro-American freedom struggle has been long ignored by history. In This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed, civil rights scholar Charles E. Cobb Jr., describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s. In the Deep South, blacks often safeguarded themselves and their loved ones from white supremacist violence by bearing—and, when necessary, using—firearms. In much the same way, Cobb shows, nonviolent civil rights workers received critical support from black gun owners in the regions where they worked. Whether patrolling their neighborhoods, garrisoning their homes, or firing back at attackers, these courageous men and women and the weapons they carried were crucial to the movement's success.
Giving voice to the World War II veterans, rural activists, volunteer security guards, and self-defense groups who took up arms to defend their lives and liberties, This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed lays bare the paradoxical relationshaip between the nonviolent civil rights struggle and the Second Amendment. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement and interviews with fellow participants, Cobb provides a controversial examination of the crucial place of firearms in the fight for American freedom.
This audio edition is masterfully narrated by Leon Nixon, a listener favorite.
This audiobook was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont ©2014 Charles E. Cobb Jr. (P)
Customer Reviews
Gift this to a Moderate Liberal
Pros:
* Supports the argument I’ve been making for years, that usually when you strike back against bigots, they don’t retaliate and instead back down. When one side is fighting for their lives, and the other side is only fighting to hold onto their privilege, who do you think is more likely to be discouraged by violence? Punch a bully in the nose and they run away scared.
* Even if you’re reasonably knowledgeable about the history of Southern Reconstruction and the civil rights era, I promise you’ll learn at least one new fact reading this book.
* Even if its educational value doesn’t appeal to you, the book is excitingly written enough that I was able to enjoy it as a sort of nonfiction western about clashes between the Klan and organizations like the Deacons of Defense. I got through the whole thing listening to it in my car over the course of two or three weeks.
Cons:
* The book is mostly focused on persuading moderates about the benefits of self-defense. But if you’re like me and you’re already a radical, the book just takes for granted that revolution or offensive violence is a bridge too far, without actually making a moral or tactical argument for nonviolence.
* The timeline is mostly presented linearly, so the history is easy to follow. But you never really get a sense of the body count. Some lynching victims are named and paid homage to. But for all the gunfights the book discusses, I can’t remember a single time someone managed to kill or even wound a klansman. Did all of these shootouts really end bloodlessly, or are the records of these battles just extremely vague in that respect?