The 1964 Freedom Summer was a catalyst for Black men to bear arms against the brutal tactics of Klan members to stop Blacks from voting. The project was designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violence Blacks experienced in Mississippi while exercising their right to vote. Robert Williams in his riveting book Negroes With Guns wrote, “The Deacons for Defense and Justice was an armed African American self-defense group founded in November 1964… 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. […]