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

ington D.C ., met white supremacist violence with Black defensive and retaliatory
violence . The armed Black response to white mobs is part of what characterized
the "New Negro." Some authors have attributed this new militance on the part of
Black people on the return of Black soldiers from the war presumably to fight for
democracy, only to face resentment, segregation and terrorism upon returning to
the U .S .
The New Negro and Armed Self-defense
In the early 1930's, Communist organizers found Black communities
relying on the tradition of armed self-defense . During the Depression Era, the
Communist Party began to organize Black sharecroppers in Alabama. Commu
nist organizers were impressed by the willing attitude of rural Alabama Blacks to
respond to the violent terror of white supremacists . The Communist Party champi-
oned the armed resistance of Alabama Black farmers to white lynch mobs led by
local police in Camp Hill (1931) and Reeltown (1932) . These two incidents were
promoted by the Communists as examples of the determination of Black people to
have freedom and self-determination in the Black Belt, or historic Black majority
areas of the South. At this time the international Communist movement recog-
nized the right of national self-determination to the Black "oppressed nation" in
the Black Belt . In both Camp Hill and Reeltown, members of the Communist
Party organized Sharecroppers Union (SCA) and traded gunfire with white mobs
attempting to disrupt meetings of the SCA . After waging a valiant fight, in both
cases, the armed militants of the SCA were overwhelmed by a superior force with
superior firepower. It was general practice for SCA members, throughout the state