Deacons for Defense and Justice
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The Deacons
for Defense and Justice was an armed African-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 and
Alabama. It was intended to protect civil rights activists and their families.
They were 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, following passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1965, the entry of blacks into politics in the South, and the rise
of the Black Power movement. Blacks worked to gain control
of more political and economic activities in their communities.
A television
movie, Deacons for
Defense (2003), directed by Bill Duke and starring Forest Whitaker, was aired about the 1965 events
in Bogalusa. The Robert
"Bob" Hicks House in Bogalusa commemorates one of the
leaders of the Deacons in that city; it was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 2015. Fundraising continues for a
civil rights museum in Bogalusa to honor the work of the Deacons for Defense;
it is expected to open in 2018.
History
The Deacons were not the first
champions of armed-defense during the civil rights movement,
but in November 1964, they were the first to organize as a force.
According to historian Annelieke
Dirks,
Even Martin Luther King Jr.—the icon
of nonviolence—employed armed bodyguards and had guns in his house during the
early stages of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
in 1956. Glenn Smiley, an
organizer of the nonviolent and pacifist Fellowship of
Reconciliation (FOR), observed during a house visit to King that the
police did not allow the minister a weapon permit, but "the place is an
arsenal."
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 blacks. In Jonesboro, an industrial town in northern Louisiana, the KKK
harassed local activists, burned crosses on the lawns of African-American
voters, 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. This
alliance between the two organizations highlighted the concept of armed
self-defense embraced by many blacks in the South, who had long been subject to
white violence. A significant portion of SNCC's southern-born leadership and
staff also supported armed self-defense.
Robert F. Williams,
president of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina,
transformed his local NAACP chapter into an armed self-defense unit. He was
criticized for this by the national leaders of the NAACP. After he was charged
by the state with kidnapping a white couple whom he had sheltered during local
violence related to the Freedom Riders in
1961, Williams and his wife left the country, going into exile in Cuba.
After Williams' return in 1969, his trial on these charges was scheduled in
1975; that year the state reviewed the case and withdrew the charges. Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party was another activist who armed herself; she
said that in 1964 during Freedom Summer, she kept several loaded guns under her
bed.
Founding
of the Deacons for Defense
African Americans were harassed and
attacked by white KKK vigilantes in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana
in 1964 including the torching of five churches, a Masonic hall and a Baptist
center. Given these threats, Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and Frederick
Douglass Kirkpatrick founded the Deacons for Defense in November
1964 to protect civil rights workers, their families and the black community
against the local KKK. Most of the Deacons were veterans with combat experience
from the Korean War and World War II.
Born in Jonesboro on November 20,
1935, Thomas grew up in the segregated state decades after the white-dominated
state legislature had disenfranchised
most blacks at the turn of the century and imposed Jim Crow laws. Following his military service
during World War II, Thomas came to believe that political reforms had to be
secured by force rather than moral appeal.
In 1964, during Freedom Summer and a period of extensive voter
education and organizing for registration, especially in Mississippi, the Congress of Racial
Equality established a Freedom House in Jonesboro. It became a
target of the Klan who resented white activists staying there. Because of
repeated attacks on the Freedom House, as well as the church burnings, the
Black community decided to organize to defend it. Before the Deacons of Defense
and Justice officially formed, two groups were operating in Jonesboro to
protect African Americans. One group acted as sentries outside the Freedom
House. This group was led by Percy Lee Bradford, a stock room worker, and
Earnest Thomas.
Fredrick Douglas Kirkpatrick, a high school teacher, organized a second group
that volunteered to monitor police arrests of African Americans while also
working to keep the community safe. Thomas was one of the first volunteers to
guard the house. According to historian Lance Hill, "Thomas was eager to
work with CORE,
but he had reservations about the nonviolent terms imposed by the young
activists." Around this time, CORE began protesting the segregation of a
public swimming pool as well as the Jonesboro Public Library. In Repose to the
Protest the KU Klux Klan and local police organized a caravan to intimidate the
protesters and the African American community in Jonesboro. Thomas and
Kirkpatrick organized a twenty men group to protect the citizens of Jonesboro,
effectively starting the Deacons.
Thomas, who had military training,
quickly emerged as the leader of this budding defense organization. He was
joined by Frederick
Douglass Kirkpatrick, a civil rights activist and member of SCLC,
who had been ordained that year as a minister in the Pentecostal Church of God in
Christ. Coretta Jackson acted as treasurer for The Deacons of
Defense and Justice. We Had been arrested for possession of a concealed weapon
while protecting protesting students. The Deacons had strict membership
criteria for applicants. They accepted only male American citizens over the age
of 21. They preferred married men with military service, as well as registered
voters. They refused men with a reputation for "hotheadedness." They
vigorously upheld their stance of only acting in defense. They continued
guarding CORE to further the overall civil rights agenda. Every member of the
Deacons had to pledge his life for the defense of justice, black people, and
for civil rights workers.
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." Hill also wrote:
"In Jonesboro, the Deacons made history when they compelled Louisiana
governor John McKeithen to
intervene in the city's civil rights crisis and require a compromise with city
leaders — the first capitulation to the civil rights movement by a Deep South
governor."
After traveling 300 miles to Bogalusa, in southeast Louisiana, on February 21,
1965, Kirkpatrick, Thomas and a CORE member worked with local leaders to
organize the first affiliated Deacons chapter. Black activists in the company
mill town were being attacked by the local and powerful Ku Klux Klan. The police and sheriff in Bogalusa
as well as well as most government organizations were all infiltrated by the
Klan. As a result, the only protection the people of Bogalusa had against the
Klan was the Deacons. Although the Civil Rights Act of
1964 had been passed, blacks were making little progress toward
integration of public facilities in the city or registering to vote. Activists Bob Hicks
(1929-2010), Charles
Sims, and A.
Z. Young, workers at the Crown-Zellerbach plant (Georgia-Pacific after
1985, later acquired by another), led this new chapter of the Deacons for
Defense. Charles Sims, a World War II veteran was the president of the Bogalusa
chapter of the Deacons. He acted as spokesman for the Deacons, demanding fair
treatment and threatening violent retaliation in the event of attack. Sims
considered the Deacons a "defense guard unit" who had formed simply
"because we got tired of the women, the children being harassed by the
white night-riders."
The Chicago Chapter of the Deacons
for Defense and Justice was formed by Earnest Thomas, vice president of the
Jonesboro chapter, in 1965. The Deacons intended to spread throughout the North
and the West but were ultimately unsuccessful because their tactics were less
effective outside of the South.
In the summer of 1965, the Bogalusa
chapter campaigned for integration and came into regular conflict with the Klan
in the city. The state police established a base there in the spring in
expectation of violence after the Deacons organized. Before the summer, the
first black deputy sheriff of the local Washington Parish
was assassinated by whites.
The Deacons' militant confrontation
with the Klan in Bogalusa throughout the summer of 1965 was planned to gain
federal government intervention. 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.
Role
The Deacons had a relationship with
other civil rights groups that practiced non-violence. Such support by the Deacons allowed
the NAACP and CORE to formally observe their traditional parameters of
non-violence.
The Deacons provided protection for
CORE leader, James Farmer in 1965. Farmer arrived in Bogalusa in order to aid
in desegregationand required the protection of the Deacons. They ensured his
safety from the time he arrived at the New Orleans airport and provided
security while Farmer spoke and marched at desgregation events.
The Deacons attracted media
attention for their protection of Charles Evers' desegregation campaign in
Natchez, Mississippi. Attention was given to them because, unlike similar
groups that had come before, the Deacons did not hide their names from the
media. This coupled with their use of armed self-defense, and modest
beginnings, made them heroes to harassed black communities.
After the successful integration of
the Jonesboro Public Library, the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses in response. The
Deacons wrote leaflets threatening to kill anyone who burned a cross. The
leaflets were distributed into the homes of white people by their black house
workers. The cross-burnings stopped in response.
On July 8,1965, at a nonviolent
march on city hall, hundreds of whites gathered to throw rocks at the assembled
protesters. The white antagonists surrounded the protesters. A twenty-one year
old insurance salesman and Air Force veteran named Henry Austin confronted the
mob and fired a warning shot. He then shot an advancing attacker three times in
the chest. After the shooting the mob dispersed. Both Austin and the attacker
survived the encounter.
In Bogalusa the Deacons worked with
CORE on their campaigns. When the local police and Ku Klux Klan joined forces
to attempt to harass two white CORE members and drive them out of town, the
Deacons intervened on behalf of the white volunteers, protecting them from the
police. The Deacons stood guard outside CORE headquarters and patrolled the
African American community. The Deacons would protect both white and black
activists as they canvassed looking for voters. They would also transport civil
rights workers into and out of Bogalusa. There were by-laws that each member
had to uphold. Sims was very clear about the roles of the Deacons: they were to
act in self-defense only.
The Deacons were instrumental in
other campaigns led by the Civil Rights Movement. Activist James Meredith organized the June 1966 March Against Fear,
to go from Memphis, Tennessee
to Jackson, Mississippi.
He wanted a low-key affair, but was shot and wounded early in the march. Other
major civil rights leaders and organizations recruited hundreds and then
thousands of marchers in order to continue Meredith's effort.
According to in a 1999 article,
activist Stokely Carmichael
encouraged having the Deacons provide security for the remainder of the march.
After some debate, many civil rights leaders agreed, including Rev. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Umoja wrote, "Finally, though expressing reservations, King
conceded to Carmichael's proposals to maintain unity in the march and the
movement. The involvement and association of the Deacons with the march
signified a shift in the civil rights movement, which had been popularly
projected as a 'nonviolent movement."'
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,
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.
According to Hill, local (armed)
groups laid the foundation for equal opportunities for African Americans.
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. Finally, the organization was relatively
short-lived, fading by 1968. In that period, there was a national shift in
attention to the issues of Blacks in the North and the rise of the Black Power movement in 1966. The Deacons were
overshadowed by The Black Panther
Party, which became noted for its militancy.
FBI
investigation begins in 1965
In February 1965, after an article
in The New York Times
about the Deacons in Jonesboro, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover became interested in the group.
His office sent a memo to its Louisiana field offices: "Because of the
potential for violence indicated, you are instructed to immediately initiate an
investigation of the DDJ [Deacons for Defense and Justice]." As was
eventually exposed in the late 1970s, the FBI established the COINTELPRO program, through which its agents were
involved in many illegal activities against organizations that Hoover deemed
"a threat to the American way".
The Bureau ultimately produced more
than 1,500 pages of comprehensive and relatively accurate records on the
Deacons and their activities, largely through numerous informants close to or
who had infiltrated the organization.] Members of the Deacons were repeatedly
questioned and intimidated by F.B.I. agents. Harvie Johnson (the last surviving
original member of the Deacons for Defense and Justice) was interviewed by two
agents during this period. He said they asked only how the Deacons obtained
their weapons, never questioning him about the Klan activity or police actions
they were responding to. Although the FBI and white media regarded the Deacons
as bringers of race warfare, they actually worked closely with CORE in their
nonviolent protests as a way to bring about change in Bogalusa. The Federal
Government finally intervened and forced local police to uphold the law and
protect citizens' right. As a result of the Deacons' actions the Klan had to
restrict themselves to night terror raids. The Deacons served as a symbol of
power and pride and undermined the stereotype of black submission.
According to columnist Ken Blackwell in 2007, activist Roy Innis had said that the Deacons "forced
the Klan to re-evaluate their actions and often change their
undergarments".
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