\n\nChinn was already a legend in Madison County, Mississippi, because of his unwillingness to bend to white power. David Dennis, then CORE\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Mississippi project director, recalls being in the courtroom of the county courthouse in Canton, Mississippi one morning in 1963, attending a bond hearing for a volunteer who had been arrested on a traffic violation, when C.O. Chinn walked in. Chinn was wearing a holstered pistol on his hip, which probably would not have raised an eyebrow if he had been white.
\n\u00e2\u0080\u009cNow C.O,\u00e2\u0080\u009d drawled the judge, \u00e2\u0080\u009cYou know you can\u00e2\u0080\u0099t come in here wearing that gun.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Madison County Sheriff Billy Noble, was also in the courtroom; Chinn looked over at him, and responded, \u00e2\u0080\u009cAs long as that S.O.B. over there is wearing his, I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m gonna keep mine.\u00e2\u0080\u009d
\nThe enmity between Chinn and the sheriff was well known throughout the county and, half-expecting a shootout, Dave Dennis thought to himself, \u00e2\u0080\u009cWe\u00e2\u0080\u0099re all dead.\u00e2\u0080\u009d But the judge spoke coaxingly to both men: \u00e2\u0080\u009cBoys, boys, no. Why don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t you put your guns on the table over here on the table in front of the bench. Let\u00e2\u0080\u0099s be good boys.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Both men walked to the table, and -- eyeing one another \u00e2\u0080\u009cvery carefully,\u00e2\u0080\u009d Dennis remembers -- set their pistols down.
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via Strong men keep a-comin\u00e2\u0080\u0099 on - The Washington Post.
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