Rise of Black Armed Resistance
1964’s “Freedom Summer” saw intensive efforts by volunteers to register black voters in the South. One organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) set up a Freedom House as a base for its volunteers in Jonesboro, Louisiana. In response, the local KKK harassed and attacked volunteers and blacks. It burned five black churches, a Baptist center, and a Masonic lodge. So some local black World War II and Korean War veterans founded a self-defense group. It aimed to protect civil rights workers and their families, and the black community in general. It was led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas, and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) activist and an ordained minister.
In a nod to the members’ religiosity, the group came to be known as the Deacons for Defense and Justice. Most were practicing Christians, and they aimed to serve their community in a Christian manner. The Deacons had strict membership requirements. They accepted only male citizens twenty one or older, preferably married, and with prior military experience. They rejected those with a reputation for “hotheadedness”, demanded discipline in the face of provocation, and a commitment to act only in self-defense. Their charter explained that the goal was “the defense of civil rights, property rights, and personal rights … by any and all honorable and legal means to the end that justice may be obtained“. Every Deacon had to pledge his life to the defense of justice, civil rights activists, and the people of their community.