The Spirit and the Shotgun: Armed Resistance and the Struggle for Civil Rights

Abstract

The Spirit and Shotgun explores role of armed self-defense in tandem with nonviolent protests in African American freedom struggle of 1950s and 1960s. Confronted with violent attacks by Ku Klux Klan and other racist terrorists, southern blacks adopted Martin Luther King's philosophy of nonviolent resistance as a tactic, Wendt argues, but at same time armed themselves out of necessity and pride. Sophisticated self-defense units patrolled black neighborhoods, guarded homes of movement leaders, rescued activists from harm, and occasionally traded shots with their white attackers. These patrols enhanced and sustained local movements in face of white aggression. They also provoked vigorous debate within traditionally nonviolent civil rights organizations such as SNCC, CORE, and NAACP. This study reevaluates black militants such as Malcolm X and Black Panther Party and also appraises largely unknown protective agencies in Tuscaloosa, Cleveland, and other locales. Not confined to one state, one organization, or best-known activists, this is first balanced history of armed self-defense that begins with southern civil rights movement and ends with Black Power era. Drawing on extensive research from a wide variety of sources to build his case, Wendt argues that during Black Power years, armed resistance became largely symbolic and ultimately counterproductive to black struggle - no longer coexisting with peaceful protest in the spirit and shotgun philosophy that had served southern movement so effectively.