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civil rights, arms, and military training

The other day I posted regarding the Lumbee indian tribe and its breaking up of a Klan rally. The Lumbee raid was organized by its VFW chairman. Somewhere back I'd posted on Robert William's book about how he organized his NAACP chapter out of WWII and Korean vets, and shot up a Klan motorcade coming to attack his vice president's house. In the book he talks about how they dug foxholes in the law, set up around the clock defensive stations, and set up a manner of phone tree so that if any one member was attacked, he could make one call, and rally all the others to his house. Then there was that incident (I forget the details) where veterans organized to overthrown a corrupt town or county government.

Possible theme for a thesis, or popular article: the effect of WWII vets on the civil rights struggle. You have a situation where large numbers of people, including minorities, are suddenly given training in arms, exposure to organization, chain of command, and communications. They return to a civilian world in which (thanks to WWII captures and most nations changing over to semiauto military arms), bolt action rifles and military handguns are a dime a dozen. [You youngsters won't remember, but I remember seeing full page ads in gun magazines for surplus arms ... Mauser 98s for $20, Springfield 03s for $30-40, Lugers and P-38s for $20 or so).