1. Hill, Lance Edward. “The Deacons for ... - Freedom Archives

social order. Segregationists were not far from the truth when they charged that
integration was revolution. The new abolitionists were asking Southern whites for more
than their hearts and minds : they were demanding their caste status and the privileges
pertaining thereto . Little mystery, then, that nonviolence failed to evoke love and
compassion in white hearts .
Gandhi had confronted a distant and demoralized enemy constrained by
national and international opinion . African-Americans, in contrast, faced an omnipresent 'i
enemy, willing--if not eager--to use legal and vigilante violence. White racial identity
depended on continued domination and violence, and, as events demonstrated, it would
surrender to nothing less than violence. But the idealistic young CORE activists making
their way into Jonesboro were not to be deterred by history or realpoGtik.~
The reality ofviolence, however, soon became a concern for the CORE task
force . Police harassment had always been troublesome for civil rights activists in the
South, and the Jonesboro police did occasionally tail activists during their voter
registration visits in the countryside . But by Southern standards, Jonesboro's police
department treated CORE reasonably well . Danny Mitchell described the police chiefs
policy toward CORE as, "I' m here to protect you . . . but we don't want any
demonstrations ." 2`
'~In this respect, the black liberation movement more closely resembled the
Moslem experience in India. Like their black counterparts in the U.S ., Moslems were a
despised minority violently subjugated by a numerically superior oppressor . It is
noteworthy that the Islamic movement's strategy ofviolence in India resulted in political
independence and self-determination, in the form of Pakistan. For a comparative study of
nonviolence in two countries, see George M. Fredrickson, Black Liberation: A
Comparative History ofBlack Ideologies in the United States and South Africa, (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995) especially pages 225-276 .
='Mitchell, "White Paper."
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