If We Must Die: Armed Self-Defense during the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1967

If We Must Die: Armed Self-Defense during the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1967 Palomo, Martin This paper looks over the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 and 1967 and analyzes the role that armed self-defense played during this period. By looking at the violence that erupted following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case, it becomes evident that African Americans, both men and women, used arms to protect their communities while simultaneously challenging Jim Crow through nonviolent civil disobedience. By the mid-1960s, armed self-defense groups, which had typically been small and informal, began to evolve into more organized paramilitary groups that defended nonviolent protesters and openly challenged white violence.