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

was comprised of predominately Black workers . On the afternoon of August 23rd,
violence erupted between police and workers at the picket line, who were striking
for wage increases, better job security and better working conditions . Union
organizers were called from a meeting after receiving word that there was vio-
lence at the picket line. After arriving at the scene union organizer Phillip Koritz
observed a Black male worker, Cal Jones, being beaten by five white police
officers . When Koritz intervened, he, Jones, and two Black female workers were
arrested . In response to the arrests and treatment of the demonstrators by police,
several officers were attacked by demonstrators and bystanders . Police vehicles
were hit with bricks . Several of the Black demonstrators, including workers just
arriving at the scene, went to their homes to obtain weapons . Fearing an armed
Black uprising, North Carolina Governor Gregg Cherry ordered the release of all
those arrested on their own recognizance, with the stipulation that Koritz would
demobilize the potential uprising . Koritz agreed to this on the condition that the
pickets would not be harassed by the police . Koritz was successful in persuading
the participants in the potential uprising, estimated to be over three thousand
angry Blacks, to not retaliate and return to the picket lines'
While the Columbia incident and the Ingram case were two instances
where the national Civil Rights community supported the right of Black self-
defense against racial terror, there were also local incidents that rarely reached thr
attention of the national media. These incidents often become important fixture
in the oral history of local communities . One such case is the ordeal of Eddie N, K
in Holmes County, Mississippi, in 1954 . In January of that year, a young Black
man shot and killed a white store owner after an argument . Noel, a veteran of the