- Mar 11, 2015
- 77,501
- 35,552
- 2,330
Maybe it's time.
Deacons for Defense and Justice
On a hot and humid July 1964 night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, there occurred a series of unheralded but nevertheless pivotal events in the parallel histories of the civil rights movement and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These events unfolded during the Freedom Summer conducted by the Congress of Racial Equality which had come to Louisiana and Mississippi to register black voters and to integrate the public schools. Since CORE’s arrival, racial tensions and the threat of violence had been high. In the preceding month, CORE volunteers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had gone missing and foul play was strongly suspected. Those suspicions were confirmed on August 4, 1964, when the FBI unearthed their bodies in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
On the night in question, shortly after sundown, persons unknown cut the electricity to segregated Jonesboro’s black community. Neighbors gathered and quietly visited in the darkened streets ignorant of what was heading their way.
But, after a spell, they saw in the distance the headlights of a caravan of fifty approaching vehicles being led by a police car with a pulsing red flashing dome light. Delighted and excited children ran into the streets to welcome what they took to be an impromptu parade.
But, as the cars approached, it could be seen that their license tags were covered and their occupants were wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. As they passed through the dark streets, the Klansmen began tossing leaflets warning the black residents to stay away from the CORE volunteers as well as the civil rights movement.
After spreading their leaflets, the night riders fanned out across Jackson Parish to light burning crosses. At the same time, a howling mob of 100 armed white men gathered outside the parish jail where a group of civil rights protesters were being held prisoner by local law enforcement.
According to Lance Hill’s The Deacons for Defense – Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press 2004), it was these events that galvanized a group of black men to take up arms. In his scholarly book, Hill spells out how these Jonesboro men formed a clandestine organization with the goal of protecting civil rights activists from the Ku Klux Klan and other racist thugs. Under the name Deacons for Defense and Justice this armed organization grew to hundreds of members in twenty-one chapters throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.
As described by Hill, “The Deacons guarded [civil rights]marches, patrolled the black community to ward off night riders, engaged in shoot-outs with Klansmen, and even defied local police in armed confrontations.”
This is, of course, at variance with the popular and widespread portrayal by academia, Hollywood and the mainstream media of the civil rights struggle as being, in essence, a victory won solely by Gandhian, non-violent protest. Hill’s account of the Deacons stands in sharp contrast to that soothing tale and documents a central truth, i.e., that when a segment of American society was threatened and oppressed by the established political and government power structure, ordinary citizens were able to resist and prevail by availing themselves of their right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. In short, the civil rights movement survived and ultimately won in no small measure because the Second Amendment, functioning precisely as the Founders intended, empowered ordinary citizens to defend themselves against government tyranny.
knowledgeisgood.net
Deacons for Defense and Justice
On a hot and humid July 1964 night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, there occurred a series of unheralded but nevertheless pivotal events in the parallel histories of the civil rights movement and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These events unfolded during the Freedom Summer conducted by the Congress of Racial Equality which had come to Louisiana and Mississippi to register black voters and to integrate the public schools. Since CORE’s arrival, racial tensions and the threat of violence had been high. In the preceding month, CORE volunteers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney had gone missing and foul play was strongly suspected. Those suspicions were confirmed on August 4, 1964, when the FBI unearthed their bodies in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
On the night in question, shortly after sundown, persons unknown cut the electricity to segregated Jonesboro’s black community. Neighbors gathered and quietly visited in the darkened streets ignorant of what was heading their way.
But, after a spell, they saw in the distance the headlights of a caravan of fifty approaching vehicles being led by a police car with a pulsing red flashing dome light. Delighted and excited children ran into the streets to welcome what they took to be an impromptu parade.
But, as the cars approached, it could be seen that their license tags were covered and their occupants were wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. As they passed through the dark streets, the Klansmen began tossing leaflets warning the black residents to stay away from the CORE volunteers as well as the civil rights movement.
After spreading their leaflets, the night riders fanned out across Jackson Parish to light burning crosses. At the same time, a howling mob of 100 armed white men gathered outside the parish jail where a group of civil rights protesters were being held prisoner by local law enforcement.
According to Lance Hill’s The Deacons for Defense – Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press 2004), it was these events that galvanized a group of black men to take up arms. In his scholarly book, Hill spells out how these Jonesboro men formed a clandestine organization with the goal of protecting civil rights activists from the Ku Klux Klan and other racist thugs. Under the name Deacons for Defense and Justice this armed organization grew to hundreds of members in twenty-one chapters throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.
As described by Hill, “The Deacons guarded [civil rights]marches, patrolled the black community to ward off night riders, engaged in shoot-outs with Klansmen, and even defied local police in armed confrontations.”
This is, of course, at variance with the popular and widespread portrayal by academia, Hollywood and the mainstream media of the civil rights struggle as being, in essence, a victory won solely by Gandhian, non-violent protest. Hill’s account of the Deacons stands in sharp contrast to that soothing tale and documents a central truth, i.e., that when a segment of American society was threatened and oppressed by the established political and government power structure, ordinary citizens were able to resist and prevail by availing themselves of their right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. In short, the civil rights movement survived and ultimately won in no small measure because the Second Amendment, functioning precisely as the Founders intended, empowered ordinary citizens to defend themselves against government tyranny.
The Deacons for Defense and Justice - Knowledge is Good
On a hot and humid July 1964 night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, there occurred a series of unheralded but nevertheless pivotal events in the parallel histories of the civil rights movement and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These events unfolded during the Freedom Summer conducted by...
knowledgeisgood.net
