Chinn was a black man in Canton, Mississippi, who in the 1960s
owned a farm, a rhythm and blues nightclub, a bootlegging
operation, and a large collection of pistols, rifles, and shotguns
with which he threatened local Klansmen and police when they
attempted to encroach on his businesses or intimidate civil rights
activists working to desegregate Canton and register black
residents to vote. After one confrontation, in which a
pistol-packing Chinn forced the notoriously racist and brutal local
sheriff to stand down inside the county courthouse during a hearing
for a civil rights worker, the lawman admitted, "There are only two
bad sons of bitches in this county: me and that nigger C.O.
Chinn."
- reason.com