Deacons for Defense - Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement

“Deacons for Defense and the Civil Rights ‘Removement’” surely and hopefully inspired thought-provoking conversation. After all, inside the climate of continuous assaults against black lives, the attempts and successes toward revoking the freedoms of African Americans are immeasurable and unrelenting. Plus, he had a loving personality, a listening ear, and a winning smile. So, when we heard a rumor that he was going to be fired, we filed into the hallway in loud protest. That incident became a catalyst for all our grievances. With assistance from CORE’s Jonesboro leader Charlie Fenton, our Caucasian brother who would later be beaten within an inch of his life in a Monroe jail by white inmates for helping the movement, we drew up a list of demands to present to the school board. The Deacons direct link to the protest was through our fearless and smart student body president, Glen Johnson, son of founding Deacon Harvey Johnson and my cousin. The book has page-turners of incidents that could have easily fostered serious bloodshed including incidents of gunfire.(That will be addressed in Part II) Early on, the Deacons made efforts to be non-violent per CORE’s policy, but there were so many situations where the whites were provoking, spitting on, and terrorizing us that Earnest “Chilly Willie” Thomas, in a meeting one night at the CORE house said “you can be nonviolent if you want and we appreciate that, but we are not going to stand by and let these guys kill you.” In the New York Times article, the Deacons portrayed and defined themselves as moderates adapting to the realities of white terrorism. After all, there had been a long history of white attempts to limit the availability of weapons to Blacks. Most 19th century firearms statutes in the South were intended to prevent free Blacks from obtaining firearms. LA’s slaves were certainly denied the right. Because of laws and discriminatory applications, this put Blacks at a distinct disadvantage with the Klan since whites carried weapons with impunity. Many black groups throughout the nation had attempted to legally carry weapons to defend themselves, but it wasn’t until March 8 that James Sharp, a black attorney from Monroe LA, filed incorporation papers with the La Secretary of State to incorporate an armed black organization in Louisiana during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. This required a good measure of subterfuge, but the legal might of this great man changed the game. The Deacons were convinced that their charter gave official sanction of their right to bear arms in defense of their community and that it prohibited law enforcement officials from interfering with the exercise of this right. Rather than legitimate their claim on the fourth amendment, the Deacons invoked a higher authority: the ancient natural right of a man to defend hearth and home against attack. This was a right that whites found more difficult to dispute - even under segregation laws. On one occasion when the Jonesboro Town Council chastised the Deacons for turning to weapons, the Deacons argued that they were living by the same custom as white men. “We weren’t trying to do nothing out of order,” remembered Deacon Harvey Johnson, “We told them it’s just like if someone is going to come over and run us out of our house. We are not going to put up with that.” In the coming months as the Deacons confronted the Klan and police violence, it would become clear that they were not afraid of offending white sensibility. The national civil rights organization had been waiting for years for a mythical guardian angel to descend from Washington and vanquish their tormentors. The Deacons waited no more.