DISCUSS SELF-DEFENSE
As the Meredith civil- -rights march: moved deeper into Missis»..: sippi, the question of self-defense grew more acute. Police har-. rassed some of the marchers ; the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses.
In face of these threats, Ernest Thomas, chief organizer of | the Deacons for Defense and Justice, brought a contingent of followers. They have guarded the nightly campsites "with pistols, rifles and shotguns." They have also provided armed escorts for any marchers who travel at night to. the airport at Memphis.
Self-defense is under hot discussion among the marchers. Some of them hold that self-defense is inconsistent with a belief in nonviolence. Bishop Charles Ewbank Tucker of the African Methodist Church voiced the opposite view in an earthy way. Arriving June 13, he blessed the marchers, saying: "Any Negro or white. has the right’: to defend himself with arms. Any man who didn't ought to take off:: his pants and wear skirts."
And on a nationwide TV program June 19, Stokely Carmichael, one of the leaders of the march, stood up: under some very provocative questioning to stoutly defend the right of an oppressed people to . use whatever means they find necessary to win their freedom.