Author's Note xi
Preface to the Paperback Edition: More Than a Gun Story
xv
Introduction 1
Prologue: I Come to Get My Gun 19
1. "Over My Head I See Freedom in the Air" 27
2. "The Day of Camouflage Is Past" 55
3. "Fighting for What We Didn't Have" 83
4. "I Wasn't Being Non-Nonviolent" 114
5. Which Cheek you Gonna Turn? 149
6. Standing Our Ground 187
Epilogue: "The King of Love Is Dead" 227
Afterword: Understanding History 239
Acknowledgments 251
Notes 253
Index 283
Charles E. Cobb Jr. is a former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and has taught at Brown University. An award-winning journalist, he is an inductee of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. Cobb lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
"Students at a high school or college level would find the book
both a fascinating read and a useful tool for learning about civil
rights activism. For students in a survey course on United States
history, or undergraduates in a U.S. history course for up and
coming history majors, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed
would be a valuable resource in both how to write compelling
history and how to explore themes, such as civil rights history,
that have been well traveled before."
*History Teacher*
"This book will have readers who might have nothing else in common
politically reaching for a copy."
*PJ Media*
"In this challenging book, Charles Cobb, a former organizer,
examines the role of guns in the civil rights movement."
*Mother Jones*
"[A] brilliant book. . . . A serious analytical work of the
African-American southern Freedom Struggle, Cobb’s book…deserves a
prominent place on everyone’s reading list."
*Against the Current*
"[A] richly detailed memoir."
*New York Times Book Review*
"A frank look at the complexities and contradictions of the civil
rights movement, particularly with regard to the intertwined issues
of nonviolence and self-defense. . . . Thought-provoking and
studded with piercing ironies."
*Kirkus Reviews*
"Cobb's long-essay format brings the Freedom Movement to life in an
unexpected way, shaking up conventional historical views and
changing the conversation about individual freedom and personal
protection that continues today. . . . A nuanced exploration of the
complex relationship between nonviolent civil disobedience and the
threat of armed retaliation."
*Shelf Awareness for Readers*
"Cobb brilliantly situates the civil rights movement in the context
of Southern life and gun culture, with a thesis that is unpacked by
way of firsthand and personal accounts."
*Library Journal*
"[A] bracing and engrossing celebration of black armed
resistance."
*Publishers Weekly*
"Cobb’s book extends beyond the subject of self-defense and
violence to provide an enhanced understanding of community
organizing yesterday and today in the freedom struggle for a more
inclusive and progressive society."
*Journal of American Culture*
"[A] revelatory new history of armed self-defense and the civil
rights movement."
*Reason*
"Cobb . . . reviews the long tradition of self-protection among
African Americans, who knew they could not rely on local law
enforcement for protection. . . . Understanding how the use of guns
makes this history of the civil rights movement more compelling to
readers, Cobb is nonetheless focused on the determination of
ordinary citizens, women included, to win their rights, even if
that meant packing a pistol in a pocket or purse."
*Booklist*
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