ABSTRACT
The beginnings of black resistance to white oppression date back to the seventeenth century, when the first African slaves were brought to America's shores, although bondsmen and bondswomen were rarely able to use armed force to defend themselves against white violence prior to 1865. The Union's victory opened a new chapter in the history of black self-defense in the United States. Faced with an upsurge of anti-black violence after the end of slavery, newly freed African Americans in the American South frequently resorted to armed force to protect themselves and their communities. During the southern civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, white supremacists again launched a reign of terror to stop the black quest for social and political change, but African Americans organized for armed self-defense on an unprecedented level to confront racist violence. While black self-defense efforts in the southern civil rights struggle and the Black Power movement have received enormous scholarly attention in recent years.
