Deacons for Defense - Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement

In this article I will highlight the legal might of the late Attorney James Sharp. "In 1964 a small group of African-American men in Jonesboro LA, defied the non-violence policy of the mainstream civil Rights movement and formed an armed self-defense organization to protect movement workers from vigilantes and police violence. Author, Lance Hill, offered the first detailed history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who grew to several hundred members and 21 chapters in the Deep South and led some of the most successful local campaigns in the Civil Rights Movement that played a crucial role in compelling the federal government to neutralize the KKK and uphold the civil rights and liberties. The book will also dispel the myths that a united civil rights movement achieved its goals through the participation of civil disobedience without violence." In truth none of our triumphs have been accomplished without defiance since African American feet first touched the soil of North America in the 1600's. In fact, struggle, revolt, intolerance, violence, and protest have continued without pause to be pervasive and unending due to the disparity of power, unjust laws and failure to implement laws that granted us equality. The Black Voters League was quite active in Jonesboro as was a small but well-organized chapter of NAACP since the 1940's. In 1956, the LA NAACP was bravely damaged by a state law that required the disclosure of membership. Rather than divulge members names, and expose them to harassment, many chapters replaced the NAACP with civic and voter leagues. Such was the case in Jackson Parish where the NAACP became the Jackson Parish Progressive Voters League. When the white citizens' council and the registrar of voters conspired to purge blacks from the registration rolls in 1956, the Voters League retaliated with a voter's rights suit initiated by the Justice Department. The Voters League prevailed, and federal courts eventually forced the registrar to cease discrimination against Blacks. By 1964, nearly 18% of the parish voters were black, a remarkably high percentage for the rural South. Real victories for the civil rights movement at the local level were scarce in the Deep South and were virtually nonexistent in LA up through 1964. Severe repression by local authorities and the Klan, combined with economic pressure by white business elites made it difficult to end segregation and discrimination even after the passage of the civil rights movement. But at the beginning of 1965, the Deacons and the Jonesboro Movement stood poised to accomplish something that no other local or national organization had done before in the Deep South: force a segregationist governor to directly intervene to the benefit of the civil rights movement. There were four tiers to the Deacons. Some of the main leaders were Earnest Thomas, Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, Henry Amos, Olin Satcher, Harvey Johnson, Elmo Jacob, Charlie White, and others. Kirkpatrick was not only a leader in the Deacons, but also a popular Physical Education teacher and coach at Jackson High School. He carried his activism into the school by quietly discussing school conditions with students to encourage them to participate in the desegregation protest that we had witnessed on TV in Selma a few days earlier. The premise of all our protests initially centered around our love for our teacher Rev. Kirkpatrick or "Boogie Chillin" as we affectionately called him because he was always playing his guitar and involving students in creating and singing his songs.

Photo Deacon for Defense

Photo Deacons For Defense -Boycotting Jackson High School Students protest at a Black Jonesboro Church that refused to allow Civil Rights Activities.

Photo by Ronnie Moore Collection Armistad Research Center Tulane University New Orleans LA