FERRIDAY, La. — Sammy Davis Jr. remembers well the turbulent days of the mid-1960s — taking a seat in the whites-only section of the Arcade Theater, being beaten back with fire hoses, having to watch fellow demonstrators’ homes at night lest they be burned.

But perhaps most vividly, the Ferriday councilman and former mayor remembers praying with a crowd of demonstrators outside the Ferriday Police Department — with a gun pointed at his head.

He doesn’t remember whether it was Ferriday policemen who stood on top of the police building, training six Thompson submachine guns on the crowd. &uot;When you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, you don’t think about who’s pointing it at you,&uot; Davis said.

But he cannot forget that day, and he does not want anyone else to forget it, either. &uot;Our children and their children need to know how we fought to get where we are,&uot;&160;he said. &uot;We didn’t just wake up one morning and here we are, free.&uot;

And that is why he objects to the idea of selling those guns, which still sit unused in the Police Department’s vault. At its Tuesday meeting, the Town Council discussed selling the guns for $20,000 to a gun dealer.

Assistant Police Chief Steve Cockerham said Friday that the guns have not been used — except to fire to them to make sure they were still operational — at least since he joined the department in 1985.

Now the a gun dealer, Dave Greenfield of Freemont, Neb., wants to buy and refurbish the guns to resell to them to collectors.

That money, along with a $10,000 federal grant the town recently received, is needed to replace two aging police cars, said Mayor Glen McGlothin.

&uot;We could sure use that money,&uot;&160;McGlothin said during the meeting. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

But Davis said that the council decided four years ago to pursue displaying the guns in its museum, which is located on E.E. Wallace&160;Boulevard.

Davis said he would still like to see the guns displayed in the museum once it is moved to the former post office building on Louisiana Avenue. To renovate and fund the that building and move the museum there will probably take several months.

McGlothin said the guns probably would not fit in with the theme of the new museum, which will be centered around Ferriday’s musical heritage, including memorabilia of natives Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, Leon &uot;Pee Wee&uot; Whittaker and the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.

In Tuesday’s meeting, the matter was referred to Town Attorney Anna Brakenridge so she could research the legality of selling the guns.

But Davis said he believes that without the guns, the representation of Ferriday’s — and America’s — history will not be complete. To him, they represent the fact that black people did not take injustice sitting down, but organized and fought for their rights.

&uot;We had people come from all over the world to get involved in what was going on in this area,&uot; Davis said.

&uot;You see in books where black people are in the field picking cotton. … We need show our children we fought to get where we are today.&uot;