Negroes with Guns

The year was 1957. Monroe, N.C., was a rigidly segregated town where all levels of white society and government were dedicated to preserving the racial status quo. Blacks who dared to speak out were subject to brutal, sadistic violence.

It was common practice for convoys of Ku Klux Klan members to drive through black neighborhoods shooting in all directions. A black physician who owned a nice brick house on a main road was a frequent target of racist anger.

In the summer of 1957, a Klan motorcade sent to attack the house was met by a disciplined volley of rifle fire from a group of black veterans and NRA members led by civil rights activist Robert F. Williams.

Using military-surplus rifles from behind sandbag fortifications, the small band of freedom fighters drove off the larger force of Klansmen with no casualties reported on either side.

An observation, based on family reports from some eye witnesses.

Just as the Northern Occupation varied greatly from one MILITARY DISTRICT to another( after the actual war ceased ), so to the Klan varied dramatically, county by county as well as state by state. It reflected the character of the men who formed each unit ( klavern ). My own father was six, perched on his father's sholders when he watched his grandfather address a meeting to DISSOLVE their county ( Lowndes,Ms ) unit when, in his words, it had become too politicized by the state officials ( these same men would later continue to enforce law & order, despite a crooked sheriff ) & my father has related at least one major kidnap of a BLACK man & summary capture, trial ( Judge John Stennis ) & execution of the SURVIVING white culprit ( the ransom was being delivered when they found the murdered black farmer & at least one kidnapper did not return that night-his trial may have occurred in the woods along the Tombigbee ). There is a great deal more therein, & i heard other reports ( as my father often selected a court case in lieu of school ), but suffice to say every living soul in that county either attended or tried to attend the funeral of that former leader of the Klan. My father commented that no movie scene or other event has eqauled the epic wave of grief from thousands of people, as he witnessed that day.

Since some on this thread seem confused, I point out the above to explain, in addition to the extreme variance during the Northern Occupation, area by area, the so-called Klan of today has absolutely no legitimate relation to the original-post the 1920's.

You seem to give a much abreviated picture of our swell nation just 50 years after the War of Northern Agression. Many areas are, today still blighted by the original devastation & the second barrior to their recovery, a Depression provided by the idiots on the Potomac. Just a WWI gave the Germans much motivation for WWII, the War of Northern Agression & the vicious occupation ( with its military, economic & personal RAPE ), give many cause to ponder the character of our masters in Washington.

RE: post 11: A lot of merit in your post. However there were and still are a lot of white Southerners who are not as anti Black as a lot of Northerners. When I was a 2 year old my best friend was Black and was killed by a horse. We were sad but I was too young to understand death. We went to console our neighbors and I remember my dad picking me up to see my friend in the coffin. This was in the depths of the depression and none of us had any money but we shared vegetables etc.

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