Deacons for Defense and Justice
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2008-04-02T22:48:17Z
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The '''Deacons for Defense and Justice''' were an armed [[African American]] [[civil rights]] organization in the [[U.S. Southern states]] during the 1960s.
==History==
A group of African American men in [[Jonesboro, Louisiana]] led by Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick founded the group in November of [[1964]] to protect civil rights workers against the violence of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Most of them were war veterans with combat experience from the [[Korean War]] and [[World War II]]. The Jonesboro chapter later organized a Deacons chapter in [[Bogalusa, Louisiana]] led by Charles Sims, A.Z. Young and Robert Hicks. The Jonesboro chapter initiated a regional organizing campaign and eventually formed 21 chapters in Louisiana, [[Mississippi]], and [[Alabama]]. The militant Deacons confrontation with the Klan in Bogalusa was instrumental in forcing the federal government to invervene on behalf of the black community and enforce the [[1964 Civil Rights Act]] and neutralize the Klan.
The tactics of the Deacons attracted the attention and concern of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], which commenced an investigation of the group. However, with the advent of the militant [[Black Power]] Movement, the involvement of the Deacons in the civil rights movement declined, with the presence of the Deacons all but vanishing by [[1968]].<ref>{{cite web
| title=Deacons for Defense and Justice
| url=http://www.africanaonline.com/orga_deacons_for_defense.htm
| publisher=Africanaonline.com
| date=[[13 October]] [[2004]] |accessdate=2007-04-07}}</ref>
The work of the Deacons is the subject of a 2003 [[Television movie]], ''Deacons for Defense''.
==Role==
In some cases, the Deacons had a relationship with other civil rights groups that advocated and practiced [[non-violence]]: the willingness of the Deacons to provide low-key armed guards facilitated the ability of groups such as the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] and [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]] to stay, at least formally, within their own parameters of non-violence.<ref>{{cite news
| author=[[Mike Marqusee]]
| title=By Any Means Necessary
| url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040705/marqusee
| publisher=[[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]]
| pages=54-56
| date=[[5 July]] [[2004]] |accessdate=2007-04-07}}
Review of Lance Hill's book (''see [[Deacons for Defense#Further reading|Further reading]] below'').</ref>
Nonetheless, their willingness to respond to violence with violence, led to tension between the Deacons and the nonviolent civil rights workers whom they sought to protect.
[[Roy Innis]] has said of the Deacons that they "forced the Klan to re-evaluate their actions and often change their undergarments", according to [[Ken Blackwell]].<ref>{{cite news
| url= http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2007/02/06/second_amendment_freedoms_aided_the_civil_rights_movement
| title=Second Amendment Freedoms Aided the Civil Rights Movement
| author=[[Ken Blackwell]]
| publisher=[[Townhall.com]]
| date=[[6 February]] [[2007]] |accessdate=2007-04-07}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Robert F. Williams]]
* [[T.R.M. Howard]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* ''The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement'', Lance Hill, [[University of North Carolina Press]] (2004, ISBN 0-8078-2847-5).
==External links==
* [http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1997-8/Hague.html "Niggers Ain't Gonna Run This Town"] a prize-winning student paper
* [http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-07-06/cover_story.html The Education of Lance Hill] How Lance Hill came to write ''The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement''
* {{imdb title|id=0335034|title=Deacons for Defense|description=2003 TV movie}}
[[Category:African Americans' rights organizations]]
[[Category:History of Louisiana]]