Tortuga Caguama (Caretta caretta, Linnaeus 1758)

The development of paramilitary organizations in the Missis- sippi movement signaled a new day in Black communities through- out the state. The capacity of the movement to protect itself and the Black community and to retaliate against White supremacist terror- ists gave Evers and other Black leaders more leverage in negotiat- ing with local White power structures. The ability of movement leaders to effect economic boycotts through solidarity and intimi- dation gave the NAACP even more negotiating strength. The Natchez model, combining economic boycotts with paramilitary defense and the potential for retaliation, proved more effective in winning concessions and social and cultural change on the local level than nonviolent direct action or voter registration campaigns depending on federal protection.The Natchez model served as the major paradigm for Black resistance in the state of Mississippi until the end of the decade. After Shields left Claiborne County, he helped organize economic boycotts in several Mississippi commu- nities including Yazoo County, Belzoni, West Point, and Indianola. In each of these communities, Shields applied the Natchez model (Herman Leach, personal communication, July 30, 1994; Johnston, 1990, pp. 292-297). In the late 1970s, the United League of Missis- sippi in several communities in northern Mississippi, including Holly Springs, Okolona, Tupelo, and Byhalia, organized eco- nomic boycotts. The United League continued the armed tradition of the Natchez model in the economic boycott it had organized in

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tect demonstrators from the Klan and other White supremacists, and in some cases they engaged in gun battles with racist Whites (Marx & Tuthill, 1980).

The insurgent movement in Mississippi demonstrates that the freedom movement could survive and grow only through reliance on economic coercion and armed resistance. Disenchanted with federal promises and expectations for external support and inter- vention, the Natchez model clearly demonstrates how local com- munities initiated social change primarily using their own resources. The Natchez model proved to be an effective disruptive campaign that forced White elites to negotiate with segregated Black commu- nities. Along with other vehicles of collective action, students of the civil rights movement must study the Natchez boycott strategy to understand the elimination of de jure segregation in the South.

REFERENCES

Black community leader killed in Klan bombing, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. (1993). Vernon

Dahmer file, University of Southern Mississippi.

Board meets with Negro delegation. (1965, August 29). Natchez Democrat, p. 1. Board rejects demands. (1965, September 3). Natchez Democrat, p. 9. Bombing angers Natchez Negroes. (1965, August 29). New York Times, p. L5. Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Cops, race strife cut tourist trade in Natchez. (1964, September 25). Muhammad Speaks, p. 27.

Crosby, E. (1995). Common courtesy: A community study of the civil rights movement in Port

Gibson, Mississippi. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Indiana.

Curfew set from 10 pm to 5 am effective now. (1965, September 1). Natchez Democrat, p. 1. Deacons and their impact. (1965, September 4). National Guardian, pp. 4-5.

Desegregation petition filed. (1965, August 20). Natchez Democrat, p. 1. Devoual, R., & Miller, J. (n.d.). Freedom lives in Mississippi (pamphlet).

Dittmer, J. (1994). Local people: The struggle for civil rights in Mississippi. Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press.

Evers, C. (1976). Evers. Fayette, MS: Author.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (1965, September 3). Deacons for Defense and Justice,

Incorporated (Racial Matters report, Field Office File 157-2466-59). Washington, DC:

Department of Justice.

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Association of Colored People at Woodville and Centreville, Mississippi, to protest elec- tion results (Racial Matters report, Field Office File 157-2466). Washington, DC:

Department of Justice.

Hopkins, A. (1966). Observation and investigation in Hattiesburg, Forrest County, Missis-

sippi. Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission report, Governor Paul Johnson papers,

University of Southern Mississippi.

Horowitz, C. (1965). Natchez, Mississippi—six weeks of crisis. Unpublished document, Freedom Information Service Archives.

If White man shoots at Negro, we will shoot back. (1964, February 17). Nashville Runner, p. 1.

Johnston, E.(1990). Mississippi defiant years, 1953-1973. Forest, MS: Lake Harbor. Leader claims five slayings. (1964, May 7). Jackson Daily News, p. 1.

Loewen, J., & Sallis, C. (1974). Mississippi: Conflict and change. New York: Pantheon. Malice toward some. (1966, April 11). Newsweek, pp. 39-40.

Marx, A., & Tuthill, T. (1980). Mississippi organizes: Resisting the Klan. Southern Expo-

sure, 8, 73-76.

Morris, W. (1971). Yazoo: Integration in a deep southern town. New York: Harper. Natchez bombing is laid to Whites. (1964, September 27). New York Times, p. 1. Natchez mayor offers reward for bomber. (1965, August 28). Jackson Clarion-Ledger, p. 1. Natchez officials meeting to consider racial crisis. (1965, August 30). Jackson Daily News,

p. 1.

National Guardsmen in city as aldermen nix demands. (1965, September 3). Natchez Demo-

crat, p. 1.

Nightriders kill Mississippi Negro. (1966, January 11). New York Times, p. 10.

An oral history with James Nix. (2000). Civil rights in Mississippi digital archive, University

of Southern Mississippi. Available: http://www.lib.usm.edu/%7Espcol/crda/oh/nix.htm Pincus, E. (Producer). (1965). Black Natchez [Motion Picture]. United States: Cambridge

Port Films.

Police push investigations of blasts that hit Natchez. (1964, September 27). Jackson Clarion-

Ledger/Jackson Daily News, p. A1.

Reed, R. (1965, July 9). White man shot by Negro in clash in Bogalusa. New York Times, p. 1. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Research. (1965). Adams County, Mississippi.

Unpublished document, Freedom Information Service Library.

Two more burned out churches dedicated. (1965, March 22). Jackson Clarion-Ledger, p. 1.

Akinyele Omowale Umoja is an assistant professor of African American studies at Georgia State University. Umoja received his bachelor’s degree in African American studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and a master’s and Ph.D. in American and African American studies at Emory University. His research focuses on African American political and cultural resistance movements. Umoja’s work has appeared in Journal of Black Studies, New Political Science, and Socialism and

Democracy. His essays also appear in The Black Panther Party Reconsidered (edited

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OR

By RU S S E L L

“ M A RO O N ” S H OATS

Liberation or Gangsterism 34

Introduction

Within two generations the youth of this country have come full circle. Starting in 1955, youth were driven by two major motivations: one, the acquiring of enough education or apprenticeships, the use of their unskilled labor or street smarts to land "good" jobs or establish hustles, and to make as much money and obtain as many material trappings as possible. The second was to use the education, apprentice- ships, unskilled labor, street smart jobs, hustles and the material trappings provided by them to win a measure of respect and dignity from their peers and society in general. Simultaneously, they were learning to respect themselves as individuals, and not simply be eating, sleeping, laboring and sexual animals.

The First Wave: circa 1955-1980

The Civil Rights Movement in the South successfully motivated Black, Puerto Rican, Euro-Amerikan, Chicano-Mexicano,

er goals that were not measured by one's material possessions. And over time each segment cheered on, supported, worked in solidarity with and/or discovered its own common interests and closely linked missons connected to broader people's goals.

Thus, Black youth elevated the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Power and Black Liberation Movements. Puerto Rican yourth energized their elders' ongoing struggle to win inde- pendence for their home island. Euro-Amerikan youth attacked the lies, hypocrisy and oppression that their parents were training them to uphold in the schools, society and overseas. Native Amerikan youth were returning to their supressed ancestral ways and fighting to regain control over some of their land. Asian youth were struggling to overcome a system and culture that had always used and abused them. Indeed all of them came to see clearly that neither education, jobs, money, hustles or material trappings could, by themselves, win them the victories they needed, or the new type of dignity and respect they deserved.

Moreover, from 1955 until circa 1975, these youth joined, for- mulated, led and supported struggles worldwide against racial oppression and bigotry, colonialism, oppression of women and

The Utopian 35

sacrifice to achieve their goals. They were youth who were capable of imagining a better world and fighting to realize

Yet here we are 30 years later and the youth nowadays have been stripped of that hard-earned freedom, self-respect and dignity. They are being told-over and over-that the only way to regain them is again to acquire education, skills, good jobs, or the right hustle(s). This means, once again, to acquire as much money and material things as one can in order again to win respect and dignity frome one's peers and society-and thereby begin to start loving one's self, and seeing one's self as more than simply an eating, sleeping, working and sexual being.

How the hell did we get back to 1955?

First off, let me make clear that even with all of the glorious strides the youth made within the First Wave, they were not the only ones fighting for radical or revolutionary changes. In fact, more than anything, they were usually only the tip of the spear. They were the shock troops of a global struggle, motivated by youthful energy and impatience, with no time or temperament for elaborate theories, rushing forward into the fray, ill pre- pared for the tricks that would eventually overwhelm them. So to understand what happened, we must examine some of the main "tricks" used to slow down, misdirect, control and defeat them. And without a point, a spear loses all of its advantages.

Strategic Tricks Used Against Them

Understanding these tricks, their various guises and refine- ments, is the key to everything. You will never really understand what happened to get us to this point, or be able really to move forward, until you recognize and devise ways to defeat them. They were and remain:

1. Co-option

2. Glamorization of Gangsterism

3. Separation from the most advanced elements 4. Indoctrination in reliance on passive approaches 5. Raw fear

Liberation or Gangsterism 36

determine what should be done to carry out far-reaching changes, while in reality they were being expertly monitored and subtly coaxed further and further away from their most radical and advanced elements. This was done mainly through control of the largess, which ultimately was part of the ruling class' foundation, government and corporate strategy for defeating the youth with sugar-coated bullets.

In time, consequently, substantial segments of these previously rebellious youth found themselves fully absorbed and neutral- ized either by directly joining or accepting the foundations', sub-groups', corporations', universities' or "approved" commu- nity groups' assistance-or by becoming full-fledged junior part- ners in the system after winning control of thousands of previ- ously out-of-reach political offices.

segments. The males, in particular, were then and continue to be the most susceptible to this gambit, especially when used opposite to prolonged exposure to raw fear!

Let me illustrate by briefly describing the histories of two groups that presently enjoy nothing less than "icon" status amongst just about everyone aware of them. These two groups' "documented histories" clearly show how that trick is played, and continues to be played, throughout this country. The first of these two groups is the original Black Panther Party, which was bludgeoned and intimidated to the point where its key leader(s) "consciously" steered the group into accepting the Glamorization of Gangsterism. Because this glamorization was less of a threat to the ruling classes' interests, it won the Party a temporary respite from the raw fear the ruling circles were lev-

Glamorization