Hartman Turnbow Quotes
This non-violent stuff ain’t no good. It’ll get you killed.
Turnbow, a Black man in segregationist Mississippi, always carried guns for self-protection and advocated it for all Blacks.
Hartman Turnbow, *, Mississippi Farmer & Civil Rights Leader, Statement to Martin Luther King Jr., 1964
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was King’s first appearance on the nation’s most prestigious news show.
The veiled threat of violence and disruption was a tactic that did not work.
Many radicals of the day argued that violence was a legitimate form of protest and self defense. Goldman urged then not to advocate violence because under the then existing law and practical considerations, that gave the law enforcement authorities the tools to persecute the dissidents.
This appears to be the first American utterance of a longstanding doctrine of foreign policy.
Stalin did not want any political opposition with its own militia. American gun control opponents often cite this quotation to show that in Russia, Stalin achieved dictatorial power by disarming the population in general and only allowing government officials to have guns. They argue that even Stalin could not have tyrannized the entire Soviet Union if every citizen had the right to bear arms as provided for by the Second Amendment.
Hartman Turnbow was a Mississippi farmer, orator, and activist during the Civil Rights Movement. On April 9, 1963, Turnbow was one of the first African Americans to attempt to register to vote in Mississippi, along with a group called the “First Fourteen”.