35. Protecting Lawful Protesters
In early 1965, black students were peacefully picketing Jonesboro’s high school over its racist practices – black students were barred from taking some classes – when hostile police showed up. They summoned fire trucks and prepared to use fire hoses against the black kids, when armed Deacons arrived on the scene and proceeded to load shotguns within sight of the police. The police ordered the fire trucks to withdraw.
It was the first time in the twentieth century that armed blacks had successfully used weapons to protect a lawful protest from an attack by law enforcement. Louisiana’s governor was eventually forced to intervene, and he compelled Jonesboro’s authorities to work out a compromise with the protesters. It was the first capitulation to the Civil Rights movements by a Deep South governor.