3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

"A Brand New Negroo": SeK-Detuue in AMion,196S-1966
'(There wenalotof nipM-~idsn ridi:q Ih :ough Ihs nsiphboihood . Vlh ibppsd IMm . Wa put IMm out snd~w Mnm
Iak wrminp . . . So IMwhit men ripM awy found out Ihet e brand new Nsprowu tam. Ylhdewy couldn't swim
and we wuudoab the riveruws could qet solhen wu but one wayb po'.
~Cherlp S(ms, Bopskiu, louisiene, 1985
On a muggy night in July 1%S, a parade of cars driven by members of the Ku
Klux Klan raced into the black neighborhood of Bogalusa, Louisiana, as they had done
many times before. Leaning out of car windows, Klansmen taunted residents, hurled
racial epithets, and insulted women while brandishing pistols and long guns. The
Klansmen fired randomly into the homes of Bogalusa's black residents ; then,
unexpectedly, a fusillade of bullets met them in return . The unwelcome visitors sped out
of the neighborhood. It was the Klan's first encounter with the Deacons for Defense and
Justice.
Shrouded in mystery, the Deacons defied definition, though several journalists
have tried . Roy Reed, a correspondent for the New York Times, described them in 1%S
as "the newest of the Negro civil rights organizations . . . an armed, semi-secret, loosely
organized federation" ; he also described them as "a tough-minded league of Negroes,
formed to defend members of their race from white terrorism:'2 Howell Raines, another
rJoanne Grant, 91ack Prote-st : History . Documents, and Analy~sss: 1619 to t_t!s Pressnt
(New York : Fawcett Premier, 1%8), 359.
ZRoy Reed, Atlanta correspondent for the New York Times , was the only writer to
take an interest in the Deacons during their heyday . I have relied heavily on his insight
into the Deacons' activities . Reed respected and understood the Deacons, but
paradoxically viewed them as misguided and "foolhardy ." Roy Reed, "The Deacons,
Too, Ride by Night,"New York TimesMa~ (August 15,1%S) : 10(I,++) and Roy