“It’s a new goddamn day” shouted NAACP leader Marja Broussard. She was addressing a march led by the “Not Fucking Around Coalition” Militia, the New Black Panther Party, The Village, and Black Voters Matter seeking justice for Tray Pellerin, murdered by Lafayette, La., police.
It is a new day when Black women not only fill the NFAC Black Militia’s ranks but lead armed Black militia units. Krystal Muhammad, is National Chair of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Cassandra X is a leader of the Dallas-based Huey P. Newton Gun Club, named after the Black Panther Party’s co-founder.
It’s a new day when Black women are the single fastest growing demographic purchasing guns in America’s settler state. Black people posted the biggest increases (up 58.2%) in national gun purchases of any national sub-group during the first six months in 2020.
Black women aren’t just buying guns, they are forming clubs and running weapons training programs. In Raleigh, North Carolina, Joy Allen and Ebony Hartsfield-Thorne, owners of InHER Piece Ladies Shooting Club said, “Defending yourself is not only knowing how to use a weapon it’s the confidence and belief you are worth defending.”
Across the state in High Point, Rhonda Carson is the owner of GIRLZ on FIRE (Feminine, Independent, Resilient, and Empowered). Her club also specializes in educating women in the safe use and operation of firearms. Black women gun buyers are setting the pace in society for the new type of modern Black woman who’s independent, strong, and can protect herself,” said one women enrollee. “You go to gun ranges and you see a lot of Black women and they come in groups of four, five, six, together – learning how to shoot. This is something happening all across the country.”
The new face of Black gun ownership is also reflected in the growth of Black gun clubs. Derrick Morgan, national commander of the Black Gun Owners Association said, his group grew so quickly, its website crashed from a surge in online traffic. The National African American Gun Association is the largest minority gun group in the country. Founder Phillip Smith said in five years, NAAGA started 75 chapters with more than 30,000 members, over 90% of whom are black.
Why are Black gun clubs and Black ownership growing?
Derrick Morgan cited fear of food shortages, long police response times and fear of being attacked. Nezida Davis offered a different view, saying after black churchgoers were targeted in Charleston, South Carolina and Mexicans were targeted in El Paso, members prepared to defend themselves. “It's crime in our communities,” said Davis, “but it's also white nationalism. I mean, I do believe they're emboldened … And, yes, I wanna be armed. I'm not goin' down without a fight.”
From New Black Nationalists standpoint, Nezida Davis has her finger on the pulse of the masses perceptions about where this country is headed. Her views mirror the results of the conservative Rasmussen Group poll that found half of American voters are worried that a violent overthrow of the US government will be attempted in the next ten years.
The Rasmussen poll comes as no surprise to New Black Nationalists: our predictive modeling projects American Empire spiraling into an existential crisis that could well lead to a government collapse in the 2020’s.
Rasmussen’s poll showed 18% of respondents think an attempted violent overthrow of the government is highly likely, while 32% think it’s somewhat likely. The poll was taken over a two-day period from July 2 – 4. “This was a surprise,” Scott Rasmussen said. “Upon reflection, though, it probably shouldn’t have been.” That’s an understatement.
Consider that the Rasmussen poll was taken before white militias were arrested for plots to kidnap Michigan and Virginia’s governors; before the August shootings of two BLM activists in Kenosha by the kid-glove white vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse; before a White Nationalist was killed in Portland when harassing anarchists; before another White Nationalist who was killed by an NBC security guard in Denver he smacked, and before Trump called told the Proud Boys to go on stand-by to intimidate Black voters at the polls.
True, the Proud Boys are some damn backward racists, but they weren’t stupid enough to come to Black neighborhoods strapped on election day—not even for the “Sun King of Whiteness.” That was never going to happen. They would have gotten “tuned up,” and they knew it.
More importantly, imagine how the Rasmussen Poll would have registered if it were taken a few weeks after the shocking 1000 strong, July 4th Not Fucking Around Coalition march on Stone Mountain, Georgia, the sacred ground of the “high Confederacy.”
The NFAC march in full military kit, electrified Black communities across the country. It jolted white people, White Nationalists, and the national media.
New Black Nationalists believe the psychological and inspirational impact of the NFAC march on July 4, has yet to be fully digested. What we do know is that recruiting for Black militias, especially in “open carry” states have picked up around the country.
The ranks of existing Black armed self-defense Black Nationalist groups, like the Huey Newton Gun Club and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense are also gaining influence. And then there are the new kids on the block.
In Hartford, Connecticut, the “Self Defense Brigade,” led by activist Cornell Lewis held a march on October 4, that was joined by Black Lives Matter 860, Power Up Manchester, and the Huey P. Newton Gun Club represented by Cassandra X. Lewis said, “now is time to come together and observe our Second Amendment rights.” Lewis said. "If the United States government won’t protect us, we’ll protect ourselves. If America doesn’t want to give us freedom and justice, we’re going to take it.
Another type of armed Black group that emerging are armed neighborhood patrols. The Minnesota Freedom Fighters is a self-described elite security unit. Led by Jamil Jackson and Tyrone Hartwell, they responded to an NAACP call for community members to come out and help patrol the Minneapolis’s West Broadway corridor,” during the social unrest after George Floyd’s death. The group was supported in the neighborhood and subsequently served as a bridge organization between the police and the community. The men worked well enough together to form a tactical security company.
In Oklahoma City, Omar Chatman, 41, organized the “1,000 Brothers and Sisters In Arms,” a pro-Second Amendment led a march of 200 Black gun owners in Oklahoma City to the Governor’s mansion. “As an African American,” Chatman said, “it’s important to send a message to the governor and president that we aren’t going to allow people to come into our communities and brutalize us. That goes for corrupt police officers, white supremacists, and criminals. Criminals have no color. It doesn’t matter if you are a Black man, white man, Asian or Hispanic. If you come into our community, know we are armed.” Okay. We get it.
What we are bearing witness to is the emergence of a new “Black Culture of the Gun.” What these neighborhood patrols, Black women’s groups, self-defense community-based groups, gun clubs, national Black gun associations, and Black nationalist militias have in common is that their activities are couched in the rhetoric and legal cloth of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. Hovering on the perimeter of this new Black gun culture is the older street tough “gat culture of the hood,” associated with criminal activity and narcotics.
This new and diverse “Black Culture of the Gun” is a good thing. It doesn’t represent a self-destructive threat to the Black community. Quite the opposite, from the New Black Nationalist perspective, it represents the building of vital capacity in our communities for armed self-defense, and more.
The best estimates to date estimate that there are 393 million guns (legal and otherwise) in the United States or 62 million more firearms than the total population. Forty-six percent of all the guns in world are in the United States. It's about time Blacks had their share.
New Black Nationalists deplore violence and deadly force: both have been the hallmarks of American society and the oppression of Black people. We are animated by the growth of the Black Militia movements. After all, we have a political agenda and a goal to create to Black nation state. Moreover, we are not pacifist, nor are we naïve. At some point in history, we will need an army.
More to the point, effective politics, the collective interests of the Darker Nation, and ethics must always guide those who wield the coercive power of the gun. That being said, it is as Ms. Broussard said, “a new goddamn day.” Embrace it.
Black Militias and Black Women with Guns
NewBlackNationalism.com.
