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

premacists vigilantes, the Sovereignty Commission offered intelligence, coordina-
tion of state and local law enforcement, and the ability to develop "fifth columns"
within the Black community to maintain white supremacy. The Citizen's Council,
the Klan, and the Sovereignty Commission were the frontline of the counter
offensive to maintain segregation and white power.
The counter-offensive utilized a variety of weapons to destabilize and
neutralize NAACP and other civil and human rights activists and their activities in
the state . A list of key NAACP and other Mississippi activists were passed out at
Citizen Council meetings throughout the state . This list included NAACP leaders
Gus Courts, George Lee (both from Belzoni), E .J. Stringer (Columbus), T.R.M .
Howard and Evers . Due to the economic pressure coordinated by the Citizen's
Council, many were refused credit, renewals on mortgages, and current loans
were called in for immediate payment . Activists were also harassed and bom-
barded with anonymous threats .
In 1954, the president of NAACP Mississippi State Conference of
Branches, Emment Stringer, decided not to seek a second term after being tar-
geted by the segregationist counter-offensive . Dr. Stringer carried his revolver at
all times for months due to the threats on his life . T.R.M . Howard had armed
security that traveled with him and protected his home . On one occasion, after a
rumor that Howard's wife was beaten by a mob of whites, fifteen carloads of
armed Blacks responded to the aid of Howard. Howard, feeling the effects of the
economic coercion and the threat of terrorist violence, moved to Chicago in 195
The same year, in the Delta town of Belzoni, NAACP and RCNL activist Rever
end George Lee was shot and killed . Lee had been threatened by local whites at tc