Book Discussion: We Will Shoot Back--Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement

MALCOLM X GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT AND FREEDOM ARCHIVES PRESENTS: A book discussion with Dr. Akinyele Umoja, Director of the Department of AfrIcan Studies of Georgia State University and Author of We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement. In We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement, Akinyele Omowale Umoja argues that armed resistance was critical to the efficacy of the southern freedom struggle and the dismantling of segregation and Black disenfranchisement. Intimidation and fear were central to the system of oppression in Mississippi and most of the Deep South. To overcome the system of segregation, Black people had to overcome fear to present a significant challenge to White domination. Armed self-defense was a major tool of survival in allowing some Black southern communities to maintain their integrity and existence in the face of White supremacist terror. By 1965, armed resistance, particularly self-defense, was a significant factor in the challenge of the descendants of enslaved Africans to overturning fear and intimidation and developing different political and social relationships between Black and White Mississippians. This riveting historical narrative relies upon oral history, archival material, and scholarly literature to reconstruct the use of armed resistance by Black activists and supporters in Mississippi to challenge racist terrorism, segregation, and fight for human rights and political empowerment from the early 1950s through the late 1970s. Please join us for two evenings of edutainment, resistance and radical movement building! Friday, November 8th 7:00pm East Side Cultural Center 2277 International Blvd., Oakland, CA Sunday, November 10th 4:00pm The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics 518 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA *In Conversation with Walter Turner Light Refreshments available. SAVE THE DATES AND SPREAD THE WORD!