Rosa Parks was an armed. No surprise from this Cracker.

[SteveM]

Tim Tyson, Visiting Professor at Duke Divinity School, did a little "myth-busting" on NPR's "On The Media" last year, saying this about the fabled civil rights leader Rosa Parks:

"There's a sense in which Mrs. Parks is very important to our post-civil rights racial narrative, because we really want a kind of sugar-coated civil rights movement that's about purity and interracial non-violence. And so we don't really want to meet the real Rosa Parks. We don't, for example, want to know that in the late 1960s, Rosa Parks became a black nationalist and a great admirer of Malcolm X. I met Rosa Parks at the funeral of Robert F. Williams, who had fought the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina with a machine gun in the late 1950s and then fled to Cuba, and had been a kind of international revolutionary icon of black power. Ms. Parks delivered the eulogy at his funeral. She talks in her autobiography and says that she never believed in non-violence and that she was incapable of that herself, and that she kept guns in her home to protect her family. But we want a little old lady with tired feet. You may have noticed we don't have a lot of pacifist white heroes. We prefer our black people meek and mild, I think."

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/08/27/02

_____________

Parks, like Fannie Lou Hammer, kept herself armed for immediate self-protection, and probably knew the limitations of violence within the civil rights movement, so "non-violence" was probably not a philosophical, but more a practical choice. I cannot help but notice that the Washington Post -- agitprop of record for gun-control -- continues to throw mythological pixie dust about in support of the myth of Ms. Parks.

[bbinacan]

1. Why use the word "cracker"? n/t

[SteveM]

6. That is what our ancestry is in Florida, since before the Civil War...

We and other Crackers do not consider the term an insult, but recognize that many Crackers opposed Civil Rights during those rough years, and a few stooped to violence; hence, as a Cracker, I am not at all surprised Parks armed herself. In her shoes, I would have done the same.

[spin]

7. The meaning of the word ...

Cracker Cowboys
The Florida "cowhunter" or "cracker cowboy" of the 19th and early 20th centuries was distinct from the Spanish vaquero and the Western cowboy. Florida cowboys did not use lassos to herd or capture cattle. Their primary tools were bullwhips and dogs. Florida cattle and horses were small. The "cracker cow", also known as the "native cow", or "scrub cow" averaged about 600 pounds, had large horns and large feet.<1>


A cracker cowboy
artist: Frederick Remington

***snip***

Modern usage
The term is used as a proud or jocular self-description. Since the huge influx of new residents into Florida from the northern parts of the United States, and Latin America, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, "Florida Cracker" is used informally by some Floridians to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations. It is considered a source of pride to be descended from "frontier people who did not just live but flourished in a time before air conditioning, mosquito repellent, and screens."<3>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_cracker

There are three main theories about how the word developed. But none of the three conclusively show how and why the Cracker became applied to Floridians.

Theory One: Cracker comes from a Celtic word meaning braggart or loudmouth. Shakespeare used this sense of the word in King John. But the theory doesn’t explain why the word in this sense would be applied to the usually taciturn folk of the Florida backwoods.

Theory Two: The word comes from the practice of "corncracking" or grinding dried corn for use as grits and meal, as in the lyrics of the folk song Blue Tailed Fly, "Jimmy crack corn." When used in this sense, a Cracker is somebody who can’t afford any other food. But this theory doesn’t answer the question of how the word got applied almost exclusively to folks in rural areas of south Georgia and Florida. And, by the 1800s, the name "Cracker" wasn’t used to describe only impoverished settlers.

Theory three: The name comes from the sound of whips used to drive cattle and oxen. Florida cattlemen cracked whips to flush their stock out of the palmetto scrub while settlers used whips to spur on oxen that pulled their carts and wagons. Cracker has been used in this sense since the early 1800s. This is the most popular theory today. But it doesn’t explain why people were being called Crackers for centuries before Florida cattlemen began working in the scrub lands.

Different areas of the state embrace different theories. For example, the corncracker theory prevails in the Panhandle and along the Georgia border. In those areas, Cracker is considered an insult.

Meanwhile, the whip cracker theory is popular in Central Florida. Cattle raisers in particular are proud to identify themselves as Crackers.

But a variation of the braggart theory developed during the Civil Rights movement of the late 1950s and 60s. Cracker began to be associated with opinionated, ignorant whites who could easily be incited to violence. In many urban areas throughout the state, "Cracker " still means "bigot."

"It’s a very interesting thing," Ste. Claire says. "I’m very careful about the way I use it. "There are people who are proud of the term. Then there are people who are very offended by the term."
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fcc/main/what%27s_a_cracker.htm

An excellent book that I recently read was entitled "The Tropic of Cracker" by Al Burt.

Crackers inhabit the Topic of Cracker, and they are called that either because they are natives of Florida or because they so love the native things of Florida that they have been naturalized by experience and exposure. People argue about the use of the word "Cracker," but it does not matter. In Florida, the word comes out of state history. Old-time cow hunters drove great herds of cattle across Florida to shipping points, popping long cowhide whips so loudly that they could be heard miles ahead. Because of this they became known as Crackers. The Florida definition has nothing to do with race. It is a tribal feather, not a street slur.
The Tropic of Cracker, page 4.

The Tropic of Cracker (Florida History and Culture)

Review
"Should be required reading for everyone who calls Florida home." - Miami Herald "Ever wonder what's the best way to eat a rattlesnake? Puzzled over the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker'? Have an interest in alligator wrestling or catfish? Al Burt has some answers for you." - Forum "Burt's writing shows a Florida that is vanishing before our eyes. reveals the strange, quirky, charming face of the Sunshine State by writing about catfishermen on Lake Okeechobee, by relating the stories of Florida cowboys who drove free-range cattle across the state and by describing the hardships of a couple who abandoned south Florida for an organic farm in the Panhandle." - Weekly Planet "Drawing upon his long career as a roving Florida journalist, Burt uses a series of vivid biographical profiles to explore the full range of 'crackerdom,' from the good old boys and 'pork chopper' politicians of the Panhandle to the native Conchs of Key West. Cracker Florida, which surely has suffered more than its share of condescension and misunderstanding, has finally found its laureate." - from the Foreword"
http://www.amazon.com/Tropic-Cracker-Florida-History-Culture/dp/0813033853/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283210655&sr=8-1-spell

[oneshooter]

17. White and square? With a little salt! n/t

[tularetom]

2. Is this supposed to make me disrespect Ms Parks?

Because actually it makes me think more highly of her for having the good sense to realize that she might actually have to defend herself against the POS's that might want to harm her.

[Kolesar]

12. At least he didn't say that she was "palling around with terrorists"...eom

[SteveM]

21. So are YOU saying she "palled around with terrorists?" nt

[Sinistrous]

3. Rosa Parks was an armed what?

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Citizen

Due respect of her civil rights, and equal protection under the law.

[RamboLiberal]

4. A lot of homes of African-Americans kept guns in the home

for hunting and of course as protection.

Reading Freedom Summer many of these homes had a shotgun and/or rifle that came out if a strange car drove up.

[jazzhound]

10. From what I understand, it was also common practice

for small groups of men with rifles to stand night watch over the homes of high-profile civil rights leaders the night before important civil rights events. On one of those occasions, author Don Kates joined the watchmen.

[Hoopla Phil]

5. k and r

[spin]

8. The black ownership of firearms helped the civil rights movement ...

One example:

In his 2004 book, The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement, Tulane University history professor Lance Hill tells their story. Hill writes of how a group of southern working class black men advanced civil rights through direct action to protect members of local communities against harassment at schools and polling places, and to thwart the terror inflicted by the Ku Klux Klan. He argues that without the Deacons’ activities the civil rights movement may have come to a crashing halt.

…Following a KKK night ride in Jonesboro, the Deacons approached the police chief who had led the parade and informed him that they were armed and unafraid of self-defense. The Klan never rode through Jonesboro again. Local cross burnings ceased when warning shots were fired as a Klansmen’s torch met a cross planted in front of a black minister’s home. The initial desegregation of Jonesboro High School was threatened by firemen who aimed hoses at black students attempting to enter the building. When four Deacons arrived and loaded their shotguns, the firemen left and the students entered unscathed. It was this series of efforts by the Deacons that caused the Klan to leave Jonesboro for good.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/blacks-used-gun-ownership-to-fight-the-kkk/

Deacons for Defense and Justice

The Deacons for Defense and Justice is an armed self defense African American civil rights organization in the U.S. Southern states during the 1960s. Historically, the organization practiced self-defense methods in the face of racist oppression that was carried out by Jim Crow Laws; local and state agencies; and the Ku Klux Klan. Many times the Deacons are not written about or cited when speaking of the Civil Rights Movement because their agenda of self-defense, in this case, using violence (if necessary) did not fit the image of strict non-violence agenda that leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached about the Civil Rights Movement. Yet, there has been a recent debate over the crucial role the Deacons and other lesser known militant organizations played on local levels throughout much of the rural South. Many times in these areas the Federal government did not always have complete control over to enforce such laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Currently, this group is "calling for arms" in black communities both mentally and physically through the second amendment.

The Deacons are a segment of the larger tradition of Black Power in the United States. This tradition began with the inception of African slavery in the U.S. and began with the use of Africans as chattel slaves in the Western Hemisphere. Stokely Carmichael defines Black Power as, “The goal of black self-determination and black self-identity—Black Power—is full participation in the decision-making processes affecting the lives of black people, and recognition of the virtues in themselves as black people.”<1> Those of us who advocate Black Power are quite clear in our own minds that a “non-violent” approach to civil rights is an approach black people cannot afford and a luxury white people do not deserve.<1> This refers to the idea that the traditional ideas and values of the Civil Rights Movement placated to the emotions and feelings of White liberal supporters rather than Black Americans who had to consistently live with the racism and other acts of violence that was shown towards them.

The Deacons were a driving force of Black Power that Stokely Carmichael echoed. Carmichael speaks about the Deacons when he writes, “Here is a group which realized that the ‘law’ and law enforcement agencies would not protect people, so they had to do it themselves...The Deacons and all other blacks who resort to self-defense represent a simple answer to a simple question: what man would not defend his family and home from attack?”<1> The Deacons, according to Carmichael and many others were the protection that the Civil Rights needed on local levels, as well as, the ones who intervened in places that the state and federal government fell short.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice

[jazzhound]

9. No Guns for Negroes

Pro-RKBA folks on this board have likely seen this video, but for the benefit of those who haven't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nckgyfGbdnU

(Part I of two parts)

[Kolesar]

11. Mayor Frank Jackson wanted to ban concealed carry in Cleveland

...and I doubt that his motivation was to "control" the black people as was claimed in that video.*

Mayor Jackson's policy was overruled by the pasty Ohio General Assembly who has a bias for "more guns in as many places as possible"

*Mayor Frank Jackson is a black man.

[jazzhound]

13. Correction

Mayor Jackson's policy was overruled by the pasty Ohio General Assembly who has a bias for "more guns in as many places as possible"

Mayor Jackson's irrational knee-jerk policy was overruled by the intelligent Ohio General Assembly who bases their decisions on facts ---- realizing that concealed carry hasn't represented a problem on any of the previous occasions when it has been enacted.

Fixed.

[friendly_iconoclast]

14. More on Timothy Tyson, Robert F. Williams, and armed African-Americans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Tyson

....In 1998, Tyson published an influential article in the Journal of American History, "Robert F. Williams, 'Black Power,' and the Roots of the Black Freedom Struggle." The following year, his Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, published by UNC Press, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in U.S. history from the Organization of American Historians, as well as the James A. Rawley Prize for best book on the subject of race. "Radio Free Dixie" provided the foundation for "Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power", a documentary film made by Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts at the University of Florida's Documentary Institute and broadcast on national television in February 2007. "Negroes with Guns," for which Tyson served as lead consultant, won the Erick Barnouw Award for best historical film from the Organization of American Historians....

An interview with Robert F. Williams:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U3spArjhUA

Another interview with Williams:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5457524655277645843#

You can buy the DVD of "Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power" here:

http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0178

[Xela]

16. Excellent background on Tyson

I've known about Tyson for a couple of years now. But thanks for reminding the gungeon about him.

Xela

[GreenStormCloud]

15. That makes more sense.

The tired Rosa Parks who didn't want to move never has rung true to me. That kind of personality would not have resisted, but would have moved.

Instead I view Rosa Parks as having somewhat of an attitude when she refused to move. That she was armed fits in with that kind of image.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

18. .....

Being armed does not necessarily mean you are violent.

[SteveM]

20. Considering the vast majority of gun-owners are not violent, you're right. nt