More Advance Praise for *This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed* “What most of us think we know about the central role of nonviolence in the long freedom struggle in the South is not so much wrong as blinkered. Or so Charles Cobb says in this passionate, intellectually disciplined reordering of the conven- tional narrative to include armed self-defense as a central component of the black movement’s success. Read it and be reminded that history is not a record etched in stone by journalists and academics, but a living stream, fed and redirected by the bottom-up witness of its participants.”—Hodding Carter III, Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Popular culture washes the complexity out of so many things.
Charles Cobb works mightily against that torrent. *This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed* shows that the simplistic popular understanding of the black Freedom Movement obscures a far richer story. Cobb defies the popular narrative with accounts of the grit and courage of armed stalwarts of the modern movement who invoked the ancient right of self- defense under circumstances where we should expect nothing less. This book is an important contribution to a story that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.”—Nicholas Johnson, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School, and author of *Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms* “*This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed* is the most important movement book in many years.
Charles Cobb uses long-standing confusion over the distinction between violence and nonviolence as an entrée to rethinking many fundamental misconceptions about what the civil rights movement was and why it was so pow- erful. This level of nuance requires a disciplined observer, an engaged participant, and a lyrical writer. Cobb is all these.”—Charles M. Payne, author of *I’ve Got the* *Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle* “Any book that has as its central thesis that armed self-defense was essential both to the existence and the success of the civil rights movement is bound to stir up controversy.
But Charles Cobb, combining the rigor of a scholar with the experience (and passion) of a community organizer, has made his case. This book is a major contribution to the historiography of the black freedom struggle. More than that, it adds a new chapter to the story of the local people who, often armed, protected their communities during the turbulent civil rights years.”—John Dittmer, author of *Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi*
“Charles Cobb’s *This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed* is a marvelous contribution to our understanding of the modern black freedom struggle. With wonderful storytelling skills and drawing on his unparalleled access to movement partici- pants, he situates armed self-defense in the context of a complex movement and in conversation with both nonviolence *and* community organizing.
Cobb writes from personal experience on the frontlines of SNCC’s voter registration work while also using the skills of a journalist, historian, and teacher. The result is a compelling and wonderfully nuanced book that will appeal to specialists and, more importantly, anyone interested in human rights and the freedom struggle.” —Emilye Crosby, author of *A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in* *Claiborne County, Mississippi* and editor of *Civil Rights History from the Ground Up* “This long overdue book revises the image of black people in the South as docile and frightened.
It tells our story, demonstrating that black people have always been willing to stand their ground and do whatever was necessary to free themselves from bondage and to defend their families and communities. This is a must-read for understanding the southern Freedom Movement.”—David Dennis, former Mississippi Director, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Director, Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project.
I never was a true believer in nonviolence, but was willing to go along [with it] for the sake of the strategy and goals. [However] we heard that James Chaney had been beaten to death before they shot him. The thought of being beat up, jailed, even being shot, was one kinda thing. The thought of being beaten to death without being able to fight back put the fear of God in me. Also, I was my mother’s only child with some responsibility to go home in relatively one piece and I decided that it would be an unforgivable sin to willingly let someone kill my mother’s only child without a fight. [So] I acquired an auto- matic handgun to sit in the top of that outstanding black patent and tan leather handbag that I carried. I don’t think that I ever had to fire it; I never shot any- one, but the potential was there. And I still would hurt anyone if necessary to protect my son and grandson and his wife.