Though far outnumbered, let us still be brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but—fighting back!
—Claude McKay
Defensive measures justified.—The general belief among Negroes is that resistance to violence is justified. Some view this display of counterviolence as simply defensive measures, some as retaliation, which in substance means the same.
The Washington Eagle, a Negro newspaper, commenting on the beginning of the Washington riot, said:
Notwithstanding the fact that these mobs, increasing in number and in violence each evening, were allowed to harass law-abiding colored citizens for three consecutive evenings, the colored citizens showed no signs of revenge or retaliation. But when the situation became so terrible that colored citizens could endure it no longer they rose up almost as one man, and, adhering to the first law of human nature, which says that self-preservation is the first law of nature, they armed themselves "to the teeth," to use the phrase of one of the local newspapers. It was only when they showed this disposition to fight back that the riot ceased.
The Messenger, a Negro magazine, said: