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Deacons for Defense and Justice
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==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.<ref name="Marqusee2004">{{cite news | author-link = Mike Marqusee | title = By Any Means Necessary | work =[[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]] | pages=54β56 | issn = 0027-8378 | last = Marqusee | first = Mike | access-date = May 31, 2013 | date = June 4, 2004 | url = http://www.thenation.com/article/any-means-necessary }} Review of Lance Hill's book (''see the [[Deacons for Defense#Further reading|Further reading]] section'').</ref> The Deacons provided protection for CORE leader, James Farmer in 1965.<ref name="enc1" /> Farmer arrived in Bogalusa in order to aid in desegregation and required the protection of the Deacons.<ref name="enc1" /> They ensured his safety from the time he arrived at the New Orleans airport and provided security while Farmer spoke and marched at desegregation events.<ref name="enc1" /> The Deacons attracted media attention for their protection of Charles Evers' desegregation campaign in Natchez, Mississippi.<ref name="enc1" /> Attention was given to them because, unlike similar groups that had come before, the Deacons did not hide their names from the media.<ref name="enc1" /> This coupled with their use of armed self-defense, and modest beginnings, made them heroes to harassed black communities.<ref name="enc1" /> After the successful integration of the Jonesboro Public Library, the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses in response.<ref name="enc1" /> The Deacons wrote leaflets threatening to kill anyone who burned a cross.<ref name="enc1" /> The leaflets were distributed into the homes of white people by their black house workers. The cross-burnings stopped in response.<ref name="enc1" /> On July 8, 1965, at a nonviolent march on city hall, hundreds of whites gathered to throw rocks at the assembled protesters.<ref name="enc1" /> The white antagonists surrounded the protesters.<ref name="enc1" /> A twenty-one year old insurance salesman and Air Force veteran named Henry Austin confronted the mob and fired a warning shot.<ref name="enc1" /> He then shot an advancing attacker three times in the chest.<ref name="enc1" /> After the shooting the mob dispersed.<ref name="enc1" /> Both Austin and the attacker survived the encounter.<ref name="enc1" /> In Bogalusa, the Deacons worked with CORE on their campaigns.<ref name="enc1" /> 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.<ref name="enc1" /> The Deacons stood guard outside CORE headquarters and patrolled the Foundational Black American community.<ref name="enc 2" /> The Deacons would protect both white and black activists as they canvassed looking for voters.<ref name="enc 2" /> They would also transport civil rights workers into and out of Bogalusa.<ref name="jour" /> There were by-laws that each member had to uphold.<ref name="jour" /> Sims was very clear about the roles of the Deacons: they were to act in self-defense only.<ref name="jour" /> 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."'<ref name="r558">{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/002193479902900406|title=The Ballot and the Bullet: A Comparative Analysis of Armed Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement|year=1999|last1=Umoja|first1=A. O.|journal=[[Journal of Black Studies]]|volume=29|issue=4|pages=558|s2cid=144632145}}</ref> 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."<ref name="wisc.edu">{{Cite book|url=http://college.cengage.com/history/ayers_primary_sources/blackpower_1967.htm|last1=Carmichael|first1=Stokely|author-link1=Stokely Carmichael|pages=44β56|title=Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America|year=1967|last2=Hamilton|first2=Charles V.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113064702/http://college.cengage.com/history/ayers_primary_sources/blackpower_1967.htm|archive-date=November 13, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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, <blockquote>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.{{sfn|Hill|2004|p=264-265}}</blockquote> According to Hill, local (armed) groups laid the foundation for equal opportunities for Foundational Black Americans.<!--But these groups were not even in all southern states - how does Hill explain other progress? --> 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.<ref name="Dirks2007"/> Finally, the organization was relatively short-lived, fading by 1968. In that period, there was a national shift in attention to the issues of Black communities 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.
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