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

Consistent with the public relations strategy of nonviolent leader like Martin
King, Jr., some armed participants in the Movement agreed to decrease the visibil-
ity of Blacks with guns to win the support of the Federal government and white
liberals . "We're playing to the media, tactically it wasn't a good idea (to advocate
or project an armed presence)," stated Flug .' 3
SNCC activists also received covert armed support in Black southern
communities . For instance, in 1963, SNCC workers were protected by Black
snipers in a section of the Black community of Danville, Virginia. Fearing the
snipers, white supremacists and police wouldn't follow or harass SNCC activists
into this neighborhood. While their statement of purpose committed them to the
practice of nonviolence, SNCC workers appreciated and often depended on the
"blanket of protection" they received from local people in Danville and other
places in the South, particularly in Mississippi."
The Genesis of SNCC in MississippidArmed Self-defense
In the summer of 1960, SNCC staff worker Bob Moses was sent on a tour
of the South to identify areas where the young organization could expand its
work . Moses, a doctoral student from Harvard, had taken time from his studies to
make a contribution to the human rights movement in the South. SNCC advisor
Ella Baker, who had a wealth of experience and contacts from her work in the
NAACP, SCLC, and the leftist Southern Conference Educational Fund, provided
Moses with a list of folk who could provide room, board, and information. The
most important contact that Baker gave Moses wasAmzie Moore. Moore, a
resident of the Mississippi Delta town of Cleveland, was a World War II veteran
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