The Deacons for Defense

Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement

By: Lance Hill

Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn

In 1964 a small group of African American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, defied the nonviolence policy of the mainstream civil rights movement and formed an armed self-defense organization - the Deacons for Defense and Justice - to protect movement workers from vigilante and police violence. With their largest and most famous chapter at the center of a bloody campaign in the Ku Klux Klan stronghold of Bogalusa, Louisiana, the Deacons became a popular symbol of the growing frustration with Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent strategy and a rallying point for a militant working-class movement in the South.

Lance Hill offers the first detailed history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice. In his analysis of this important yet long-overlooked organization, Hill challenges what he calls "the myth of nonviolence" - the idea that a united civil rights movement achieved its goals through nonviolent direct action led by middle-class and religious leaders. In contrast, Hill constructs a compelling historical narrative of a working-class armed self-defense movement that defied the entrenched nonviolent leadership and played a crucial role in compelling the federal government to neutralize the Klan and uphold civil rights and liberties.

©2004 The University of North Carolina Press (P)2020 Tantor

A Tale That Needa Retelling, RetoolingvWith Some R

We should have taken our chance by standing up and stricking back. Sustained and redemptive suffering as advocated by non violence has allowed a circular pattern back to deprivation. injustice snd more violence against people of color. pushback, backlash and the retraction of laws and decisions has us in Jim Crow Ii with killings, limited economic stability and a concerted effort to limit access in all areas without fear. The majority of people of color have benitted little in fact there have been significant loses in education, cultural expression, intellectual development and psychological and emotional development and well being. Berets, black leather jackets, specifically aimed. weapons (not street ones) are needed or once again we will be saying "yes sir" when told "servants obey your masters."

Black history that was pushed to the backgrounds.

This book was very enlightening! I had heard of the Decons but not their detailed history. And how in many ways were the backbone of the Civil rights movement. These men understood that defense of one's person, family, property and right was how change really is made. These men were heroes in my opinion!

The other half of American History

The myth of “none violence” is further dispelled in this book. Stories of bravery and the true role it played in the Civil Rights movement are told here.

The lost warriors of the civil rights movement.

A great book and so much untold history about armed resistance in the civil rights movement.

A well told history

I’m a black man from Louisiana and this was the most information I have ever received on this subject

truly an eye opening read

I abhor non-violence as a principle. revolutionary violence is self defense by another name. UHURU!

An important lesson in the dangers of omitting parts of history.

A fair presentation of the role of self defense and meeting violence with resistance. The civil rights movement depended upon a willingness of the oppressed to protect themselves and thier communities against terrorists of the KKK and oppressive violent governmental organizations. The LGTBQIA+ movement needs to pay attention.