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

Anyone participating in the march had to commit themselves to nonvio-
lence and to not be armed on the march. Some local Blacks were not willing to
make that commitment. As Hollis Watkins remembered, "some of the local
brothers and sisters said `I can't give up my stuff so I won't be on the march, I'll
just be on the side ."' This arrangement of armed bystanders accompanying non-
violent demonstrations were not isolated to Greenwood and would become a
common practice."
Before reaching city hall as planned, the marchers were met on the street
by the mayor of Greenwood, Charles Sampson, twelve police officers, and a
German shepherd. Sampson, a member of Greenwood's Citizen Council, ordered
his officers to release the dog which dispersed the crowd after the canine bit one
marcher and shredded the pants leg of Moses . Forman, Moses, Peacock, and
SNCC activists Charles McLaurin, Frank Smith, Curtis Hayes, Bobby Talbert,
Lafayette Surney, James Jones and Lawrence Guyot were all arrested . The next
day forty people walked to the courthouse to attempt to register. They were, as the
day before, met by police and attacked by police canine. These actions and their
corresponding violent reaction did receive attention from the national media . The
national media attention forced the Kennedy Administration to intervene to
prevent the escalation of hostilities . Justice Department officials asked for a
temporary restraining order to be imposed on city officials in Greenwood, and
directed local authorities to release incarcerated voter registration activists . ;'
The following Wednesday, after the injunction, a small demonstration of
forty people was disrupted by local police officers . Nineteen of the marchers were
arrested. During the initial confrontation between the marchers and the police, one