bdickens wrote:The NRA. America's original Civil Rights organization.

I read a book not too long ago detailing how the NRA backed up Blacks in the South who were being terrorized by the Klan...
Although I don't agree with a large part of Williams' political philosophies (he was pretty left leaning), I do agree with he and his followers being able to defend themselves when attacked by racists. I also think that his policies may have been an outgrowth of the racial divisions and politics of the time.While African Americans were being terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan, where the Klan were sometimes aided by local law enforcement, the NRA setup charters to help train local African American communities to be able protect themselves. The most prominent case being in 1960 in Monroe, N.C. where the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People head Robert Williams also chartered an NRA Rifle Club that successully defended an assault on one of their leader's homes by the KKK without casualties.