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

and Movement activists of McComb . The bombings and other violent forms of
terrorism continued.
The Black community and Movement activists had little confidence the
federal government was seriously trying to prevent the continued terrorism and
repression in McComb . There was certainly the belief by McComb Blacks that the
FBI had not seriously attempted to find and punish the perpetrators of the prolif-
eration of bombings that had occurred since June of 1964. In fact, in August the
FBI force in McComb had been reduced from sixteen to four. A letter from Jesse
Hams to Justice Department official Burke Marshall, dated September 9, 1964,
appealed to the federal government "to take action before it was too late ." Harris
concluded his letter stating ". ..unless responsible forces are brought to bear in
McComb, what happened in Neshoba County (Philadelphia, Miss ., where three
civil rights workers were murdered) will happen here ."5 ' In spite of the appeals of
Harris and others the federal government took no substantive action to make the
Black community feel more secure .
In the face of continued threats of racist violence and without assurances
of federal protection, the Black community of McComb became an armed camp .
Besides being armed and on alert, in the late summer and early fall of 1964, the
Black neighborhoods of McComb were angered and tense . The design of the Klan
and segregationist violence and intimidation, to instill fear in Blacks and drive a
wedge between the Movement and the Black community, was basically unsuc-
cessful . The violence had increased the potential for retaliatory violent action
from large numbers of McComb Blacks, particularly among the working class,
poor, and youth . Remembering the climate in McComb's Black neighborhoods in