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

pants from Old Pilgrim's Rest in the Holmes County voter registration campaign.
Mrs . Saffold also was one of the workers in the freedom school in Old Pilgrim's
Rest. Their role in the local movement and their decision to house volunteers
made the Robys, Saffolds, and Williamses the primary targets of white suprema-
cists in the section of Holmes County. Since the level of solidarity was not as high
(compared to Harmony and Mileston) these three families had to support each
other. Commenting on how his peers in the Black community ostracized him,
Jodie Saffold remembered often overhearing Blacks say about him "that nigger
ain't got no sense ." In their own home, Mr. and Mrs . Saffold took turns sleeping
at night, armed with rifles to watch for nightriders . Vanderbilt Roby often spent
evenings "layin' in the bushes" outside his home "lookin' for them (the
nightriders) to come and shoot." Vanderbilt, Jodie, and Link would also periodi-
cally drive by each others home to check on the security of their comrades ."
As was stated by SNCC organizers in the June 1964 staff meeting con-
cerning organizers being armed, Delta Blacks were armed and preparing them-
selves for white supremacist violence during Freedom Summer. In Greenwood,
the same local self-defense structure that was activated in the campaign of 1963
to protect the participants of the Movement and the Black community, was main-
tained throughout Freedom Summer. While other places may have not been as
organized as Greenwood, guns were certainly part of the culture of survival and
resistance . Unita Blackwell, community leader of the Delta town of Mayerville,
took turns sleeping in the evenings with her husband, so someone would be
awake, armed, and on alert for nightriders . Hosts making available weapons to
volunteers may not have been an usual occurrence . SNCC organizer Kwame Ture
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