African Americans in the Sixties could have chosen to arm themselves, but we made a conscious decision not to. We were convinced that peace could not be achieved through violence. Violence begets violence, and we believed the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense.
— Civil Rights Leader John Lewis, responding earlier this week to Rush Limbaugh’s retort that black Americans could have used guns to protect themselves during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
