By Don Valentine
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. It was intended to protect civil rights activists and their families, 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.”
There was a fork on the long road to civil rights. One fork was led by the “Drum Major” for peace Dr. King, the N.A.A.C.P., Southern Christian Leadership Council and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The 60’s saw an emergence of groups for self defense and unabashed direct violence. Groups on that fork of the road were the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and the Fruits of Islam (F.O.I.) and the Deacons for Defense (DFD). In a summary of the DFD, the historical platform Project Muse wrote, “As one of African Americans’ most successful, if least remembered, indigenous working class political movements in the South, the significance of the Deacons for Defense rested not only in their advocacy of armed self defense, but also in the ideological challenge they represented for middle class Black leadership.”
Bogalusa is only 70 miles north of New Orleans and it was a living purgatory for the Black residents. That city was rife with “Red-Neck” police malfeasance to maintain the community’s racial segregation. Congress had enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in places such as theaters, restaurants and hotels. It banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places. The Klan was undaunted in keeping the “Negros” in their place. It was described by Socialism.com, “Relative to the population, the KKK chapter in Bogalusa is the largest in the country…Both the paper mill and town are fully (and illegally) segregated.”
Blacks countered with the DFD, a mix of former (WW2 and Korean war) veterans and a stoutly armed Black working class. The DFD’s visible confrontation with the Klan was crucial in leveraging the Federal government to intervene on behalf of the Black community. The media attention forced state and national officials to initiate efforts to neutralize the conspicuous Klan activity in that area.
To learn more watch the 2003 Deacons For Defense movie starring Forest Whitaker or read the Deacons For Defense book by Lance Hill.
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