We will shoot back : armed resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement / Akinyele Omowale Umoja

Object Details

Author

Umoja, Akinyele Omowale

Subject

Mississippi Freedom Project

Contents

Terror and resistance: foundations of the civil rights insurgency -- "I'm here, not backing up": emergence of grassroots militancy and armed self-defense in the 1950s -- "Can't give up my stuff": nonviolent organizations and armed resistance -- "Local people carry the day": freedom summer and challenges to nonviolence in Mississippi -- "Ready to die and defend": Natchez and the advocacy and emergence of armed resistance in Mississippi -- "We didn't turn no jaws": black power, boycotts, and the growing debate on armed resistance -- "Black revolution has come": armed insurgency, black power, and revolutionary nationalism in the Mississippi freedom struggle -- "No longer afraid": the United League, activist litigation, armed self-defense, and insurgent resilience in northern Mississippi

Summary

"The notion that the civil rights movement in the southern United States was a nonviolent movement remains a dominant theme of civil rights memory and representation in popular culture. Yet in dozens of southern communities, Black people picked up arms to defend their leaders, communities, and lives. In particular, Black people relied on armed self-defense in communities where federal government officials failed to safeguard activists and supporters from the violence of racists and segregationists, who were often supported by local law enforcement. In We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement, Akinyele Omowale Umoja argues that armed resistance was critical to the efficacy of the southern freedom struggle and the dismantling of segregation and Black disenfranchisement. Intimidation and fear were central to the system of oppression in Mississippi and most of the Deep South. To overcome the system of segregation, Black people had to overcome fear to present a significant challenge to White domination. Armed self-defense was a major tool of survival in allowing some Black southern communities to maintain their integrity and existence in the face of White supremacist terror. By 1965, armed resistance, particularly self-defense, was a significant factor in the challenge of the descendants of enslaved Africans to overturning fear and intimidation and developing different political and social relationships between Black and White Mississippians. This riveting historical narrative relies upon oral history, archival material, and scholarly literature to reconstruct the use of armed resistance by Black activists and supporters in Mississippi to challenge racist terrorism, segregation, and fight for human rights and political empowerment from the early 1950s through the late 1970s." -- Publisher's website.

2013

20th century

Type

Books

Physical description

xii, 339 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place

Mississippi

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Self-defense--Political aspects--History

African Americans--Civil rights--History

African Americans--Suffrage--History

Civil rights workers--History

Civil rights movements--History

Race relations

History

Record ID

siris_sil_1023725

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0