The Deacons for Defense and Justice was a Black American self-defense group founded in November 1964, during the civil rights era in the United States, in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana. On February 21, 1965—the day of Malcolm X's assassination—the first affiliated chapter was founded in Bogalusa, Louisiana, followed by a total of 20 other chapters in this state, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. It was intended to protect civil rights activists and their families, threatened both by white vigilantes and discriminatory treatment by police under Jim Crow laws. The Bogalusa chapter gained national attention during the summer of 1965 in its violent struggles with the Ku Klux Klan.

By 1968, the Deacons' activities were declining,</blockquote>

Smiley convinced King that he could not keep such weapons or plan armed "self-defense", as it was inconsistent with his public positions on non-violence. Dirks explored the emergence of Black groups for self-defense in Clarksdale and Natchez, Mississippi from 1960 to 1965.

In many areas of the Deep South, local chapters of the Ku Klux Klan or other white insurgents operated outside the law, and white-dominated police forces practiced discrimination against Black people. In Jonesboro, an industrial town in northern Louisiana, the KKK harassed local activists, burned crosses on the lawns of Black Americans, and burned down five churches, a Masonic Hall, and a Baptist center.

Scholar Akinyele O. Umoja notes that by 1965, both the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE supported armed self-defense, although they had long promoted non-violence as a tactic to achieve civil rights. They began to believe that changes in federal law were not sufficient to advance civil rights or to protect activists locally. National CORE leadership, including James Farmer, publicly acknowledged a relationship between CORE and the Deacons for Defense in Louisiana. One group acted as sentries outside the Freedom House, led by Percy Lee Bradford, a stock room worker, and Earnest Thomas. They preferred married men with military service, as well as registered voters.

During the day, the men concealed their guns. At night they carried them openly, as was allowed by the law, to discourage Klan activity at the site and in the Black community. In early 1965, Black students were picketing the local high school in Jonesboro for integration. They were confronted by hostile police ready to use fire trucks with hoses against them. A car carrying four Deacons arrived. In view of the police, these men loaded their shotguns. The police ordered the fire truck to withdraw. This was the first time in the 20th century, as Hill observes, that "an armed Black organization had successfully used weapons to defend a lawful protest against an attack by law enforcement". Before the summer, the first Black deputy sheriff of the local Washington Parish was assassinated by whites. These tactics proved successful when "in July 1965, escalating hostilities between the Deacons and the Klan in Bogalusa provoked the federal government to use Reconstruction-era laws to order local police departments to protect civil rights workers". The Deacons also initiated a regional organizing campaign, founding a total of 21 formal chapters and 46 affiliates in other cities. <!-- what years? -->

Role

The Deacons had close relationships with other civil rights groups that practiced non-violence. Such support by the Deacons enabled the NAACP and CORE to maintain their desired parameters of non-violence.

The Deacons provided protection for CORE leader, James Farmer in 1965.

Stokely Carmichael had first made a speech about Black Power in Mobile, Alabama in 1965, when marchers demonstrating for the vote reached the state capital from Selma. In 1967 Carmichael said, "Those of us who advocate Black Power are quite clear in our own minds that a 'non-violent' approach to civil rights is an approach black people cannot afford and a luxury white people do not deserve."

In his 2006 book, Hill discusses the difficulties in achieving change on the local level in the South after national leaders and activists left. He wrote:

<blockquote>the hard truth is that these organizations produced few victories in their local projects in the Deep South--if success is measured by the ability to force changes in local government policy and create self-governing and sustainable local organizations that could survive when the national organizations departed ... The Deacons' campaigns frequently resulted in substantial and unprecedented victories at the local level, producing real power and self-sustaining organizations.</blockquote>

According to Hill, local (armed) groups laid the foundation for equal opportunities for Black Americans.<!--But these groups were not even in all southern states - how does Hill explain other progress? -->

According to a 2007 article by Dirks, the usual histories of the Civil Rights Movement tend to overlook such organizations as the Deacons. She says there are several reasons: First, the dominant ideology of the Movement was one of non-violence. Second, threats to the lives of Deacons' members required them to maintain secrecy to avoid terrorist attacks. In addition, they recruited only mature male members, in contrast to other more informal self-defense efforts, in which women and teenagers sometimes played a role.

Commemoration

  • The Robert "Bob" Hicks House in Bogalusa is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Robert "Bob" Hicks Foundation is in the process of restoring and preserving the house.

Representation in other media

  • Michael D'Antonio wrote a fictional short story, "Deacons for Defense", based on events in Bogalusa, Louisiana.https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1256877/
  • The Deacons in Bogalusa are the subject of a 2003 television movie, Deacons for Defense. Based on D'Antonio's story and produced by Showtime, it was directed by Bill Duke. The movie stars Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, with Ossie Davis, and Jonathan Silverman. The film explores development of the group through events of 1964 and 1965. The plot follows the transition of a black family and community members from belief in non-violence to supporting armed self-defense.

See also

  • Robert F. Williams
  • T. R. M. Howard
  • Chambers v. Mississippi

References

;Bibliography

Further reading

  • Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972, University of Georgia Press: 1995/reprint 1999.
  • Seth Hague, "Niggers Ain't Gonna Run This Town", 1997–1998, prize-winning student paper, Dept. of History, Loyola University New Orleans
  • Lance Hill, Southern Institute
  • "Deacons for Defense and Justice", FBI file