Barry Pepper & Jason Cabell Collaboration OnD ‘Negroes With Guns’ Feature About Civil Rights Activist Robert F. Williams

Deadline is reporting that Barry Pepper’s Peace River Productions is producing Negroes With Gun, a feature that ex-Navy Seal Jason Cabell (Running with the Devil) will write and direct.

Negroes With Guns is based on the true story of civil rights hero Robert F. Williams and his legendary battles in Monroe, NC with the KKK, local, state and federal Government and his forced exile to Cuba, where he continued to inspire the civil rights movement with his worldwide radio show, broadcasting until his signal was jammed by the US Government. His book about his experiences through Monroe, Negroes With Guns, is known as the single most important influence on Huey P. Newton in forming the Black Panther Party. We also hear that Pepper is playing a supporting role in the feature.

As an ex-Marine, Williams’ ‘People with strength’ movement diverged doctrinally with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’ non-violence approach, clearly stated as “We will defend our women and children, our homes and ourselves with our arms. We will meet violence with violence. The Negroes of the South cannot expect justice in the courts, he must convict his attacker on the spot, meet violence with violence, lynching with lynching”. “When people say that they are opposed to Negroes ‘resorting to violence’ what they really mean is that they are opposed to Negroes defending themselves and challenging the exclusive monopoly of violence practiced by White racists,” wrote Williams.

The Saving Private Ryan alum Pepper starred in Cabell’s directed-and-written crime drama Running With the Devil which starred Nicolas Cage and Laurence Fishburne. Pepper also starred recently in Vaclav Marhoul’s The Painted Birdand last summer’s cult alligator Paramount pic Crawl.