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

protection . One of the most passionate arguments in opposition to armed self-
defense was made by Prathia Hall, an activist and theology student from Philadel-
phia . Hall was no stranger to the violence of Southern segregationists, as she had
been wounded in Dawson, Georgia, in 1962 . On the philosophical level, Hall
argued that by "destroying life (through violence) we don't preserve them ." From
a pragmatic point of view she argued that the talk of Black self-defense was
suicidal . Hall believed" [I]f you kill an attacker. . .you will lose your home any way
because the (white) townsmen will come to the aid of the attacker and take every-
thing (life and property) away from you." On the question of SNCC workers
being armed, Bob Moses argued that while SNCC could not expect local Blacks
to commit themselves to nonviolence, SNCC workers were obligated to be un-
armed. Moses recognized that being armed was a way of life in Black Southern
culture, and to most local Blacks nonviolence was a foreign concept . On the other
hand SNCC as an organization had made a commitment to nonviolence and its
organizers were required to practice Christian pacifism.'
The advocates of armed self-defense also argued passionately and persua-
sively. Sam Block testified that whites intending to do harm to the SNCC office
had been deterred, most likely by armed Blacks. Block also invoked the example
of Laura McGhee, who had prevented attacks on her home by being armed. In
response to Hall's assertion that armed self-defense would be suicidal for Black
Southern communities, Mike Sayer, a white activist from New York, reminded his
colleagues about Robert Williams and the armed Black community in Monroe,
North Carolina . To Sayer the deterrence of the Klan by armed patrols in Monroe
suggested armed Black resistance would not necessarily led to a holocaust and
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