Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

ticed some form of self-defense covertly. The one exception was Robert Williams
in Monroe, North Carolina. Williams, a local NAACP leader, had received na-
tional headlines due to his advocacy of "meeting violence with violence ." Under
Williams' leadership, Monroe Blacks organized armed patrols that had discour-
aged Klan caravans from harassing and terrorizing their community. Within
Movement circles, Williams was considered the primary advocate for armed self-
defense. He published a newsletter, The Crusader. with national distribution for
the purpose of spreading his views on the Movement, including armed self-
defense . While Williams was a nationally recognized and outspoken advocate of
armed resistance, most SNCC and CORE activists came into contact with activists
and Movement supporters who practiced armed self-defense without seeking or
receiving publicity. Michael Flug, a CORE worker from Brooklyn, New York,
remembers armed sentries protecting CORE Freedom Houses throughout the
South in 1962 through 1964 . The Freedom Houses were the center of activity,
particularly voter registration, and the residence of some field workers and staff in
Southern communities. Mostly local people would be involved in the sentries,
with occasional participation from some CORE workers . While CORE members
were bound to practice nonviolence by CORE's Rules ofAction, local people
were not obligated to practice pacifism. Flug remembers that local Black South-
erners would be shown passages in CORE's Rules of Action and comment "I
didn't see that ." Flug also remembers that the same folk who were willing to
protect him and other CORE workers were not interested in publicly advocating
armed self-defense . The attitude of the covert defenders of the Freedom Houses
about Williams public stance was "why you want to put that out in the public ."