3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives 3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives
Deacons' protection, and recognized their participation as complementary, rather than antithetical, to the larger movements~ Charles Sims' own testimony holds the key to unlocking the mystery surrounding the Deacon debates and King's enigmatic behavior . Sims claimed "a lot of things happened on the Meredith march that was never told." For example, he described the funeral of Armstead Phipps, an elderly participant who collapsed and died of a heart attack during the protest, "mar+chin' for his freedom." King was asked to preach at his funeral "way up in the Delta ." King agreed to go to the service, but he would not go unless Sims "carried him ." And he knowed the only way for me to carry him in the Delta, I had to carry him with my gun and my mens, not his . He can let his men trail along at the tail end, but in front and behind, it was gon' be me. And that was the only way he'd go . So, when the chips were down, I won't say the man woulda picked up a gun, but I'll say this, he didn't run one away, 'cause I was with the man .s9 Sims had spurned King just a year before . When asking civil rights leaders to come to Bogalusa in 1965, Sims said, "I want everybody here except Martin Luther King . if he came and they gun him, I couldn't protect him, because he don't believe in me ." Sims apparently changed his opinion of King after the two men discussed self-defense and the se David J. Garrow, A 'nathe Cross : Martin ~~t_t!er Kin,. .lr. and t_he South,rn Christian Leadershjp Conference (New York: William Morrow & Co ., Inc ., 1986), 477 ; Sellers, 166 . Adam Fairclough has suggested that Carntichael encouraged animosity between King and Wilkins "to ensure that SNCC did not become absorbed in a broad coalition that watet+ed down its more radical aims." He also has suggested that King allowed his long-standing dislike of Wilkins to influence hisjudgment regarding the Deacons . See Adam Fair+clough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Sout_h_ern Christian Ls~rshiQ Conference and Martin ~~t_E!er ICnQ,,,~r (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 313-1 S . 13 6
goals of the movement. A year later, during the Meredith March, Sims told King, "Now you do yo' thing and I'm gonna back you up in doin' yo' thing, cause this is myjob." Sims admitted that he respated and admired King as a "brilliant" man. According to Sims, King recognized a place for the Deacons within the movement . Both of them, he felt, saw the complementary nature of civil rights activism and armed self-defense by blacks During the march, the Deacons provided protection for the marchers, serving as "bodyguards." They stopped suspicious whites loitering near the march route and demanded that they state their business . They walked the ridges of hills adjacent to the road . Ernest Thomas observed the march from his car (complete with a windshield sticker that read "Friends of the Deacons") . Thomas and the Deacons guarded the campsites at night with rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and provided amid escorts for marchers who travelled at night to the airport in Memphis ai Reverend Theodore Seamans, pastor of Woodbridge Methodist Church in Woodbridge, New Jersey, saw weapons in Deacons' cars . He spoke for many when he said, "I was astounded and made my views known . The movement is no place for guns."~ S9Sims, quoted in Raines, My Soul is Rested, 422 . °Sims quoted in Raines, My Soul is Rested, 421-422, and in New York Times (August 15, 1965) : 24. 6~Gene Roberts, "Mississippi March Gains Momentum," New York Times (June 10, 1966): 35 . See also Sellers, The River of No Return , 165-6 . "Marchers Upset by Apathy," New York Times (June 14, 1966) : 19 . 13 7
- Page 107 and 108: terms of "`violence' versus `nonvio
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- Page 111 and 112: The best descriptor of Malcolm X wa
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- Page 115 and 116: someone is treating you in a crimin
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- Page 121 and 122: have, he wondered, to stop the loca
- Page 123 and 124: precluded him from being involved.
- Page 125 and 126: Malcolm "proved" his detractors to
- Page 127 and 128: Malcolm reveled in ambivalence, and
- Page 129 and 130: While his views on integration, whi
- Page 131 and 132: He summed up his speoch by doclarin
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- Page 135 and 136: shifted from Jonesbom to 8ogalusa,
- Page 137 and 138: cost. The struggle for black equali
- Page 139 and 140: point, the Deacons had ban quietly
- Page 141 and 142: Under the aegis of their charter an
- Page 143 and 144: them ; they were attuned to the law
- Page 145 and 146: the head, causing a gash . Leneva T
- Page 147 and 148: One thing is apparent in this year
- Page 149 and 150: mistake" ; the presence of the Deac
- Page 151 and 152: done:' Sims said, "we walked like m
- Page 153 and 154: he waa killedj, but I believe he wa
- Page 155 and 156: Events picked up across the border
- Page 157: they were bound to precipitate a ca
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- Page 181 and 182: To Carmichael, the Deacons for Defe
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- Page 185 and 186: considered the Panthers "a living t
- Page 187 and 188: legislator from Piedmont, specifica
- Page 189 and 190: Seale, the police were the enforcem
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- Page 201 and 202: The Deacons for Defense and Justice
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Deacons' protection, <strong>and</strong> recognized their participation as complementary, rather than<br />
antithetical, to the larger movements~<br />
Charles Sims' own testimony holds the key to unlocking the mystery surrounding<br />
the Deacon debates <strong>and</strong> King's enigmatic behavior . Sims claimed "a lot of things<br />
happened on the Meredith march that was never told." For example, he described the<br />
funeral of Armstead Phipps, an elderly participant who collapsed <strong>and</strong> died of a heart<br />
attack during the protest, "mar+chin' for his freedom." King was asked to preach at his<br />
funeral "way up in the Delta ." King agreed to go to the service, but he would not go<br />
unless Sims "carried him ."<br />
And he knowed the only way for me to carry him in the Delta, I had to carry him<br />
with my gun <strong>and</strong> my mens, not his . He can let his men trail along at the tail end,<br />
but in front <strong>and</strong> behind, it was gon' be me. And that was the only way he'd go .<br />
So, when the chips were down, I won't say the man woulda picked up a gun, but<br />
I'll say this, he didn't run one away, 'cause I was with the man .s9<br />
Sims had spurned King just a year before . When asking civil rights leaders to come to<br />
Bogalusa in 1965, Sims said, "I want everybody here except Martin Luther King . if he<br />
came <strong>and</strong> they gun him, I couldn't protect him, because he don't believe in me ." Sims<br />
apparently changed his opinion of King after the two men discussed self-defense <strong>and</strong> the<br />
se David J. Garrow, A 'nathe Cross : Martin ~~t_t!er Kin,. .lr. <strong>and</strong> t_he South,rn<br />
Christian Leadershjp Conference (New York: William Morrow & Co ., Inc ., 1986), 477 ;<br />
Sellers, 166 . Adam Fairclough has suggested that Carntichael encouraged animosity<br />
between King <strong>and</strong> Wilkins "to ensure that SNCC did not become absorbed in a broad<br />
coalition that watet+ed down its more radical aims." He also has suggested that King<br />
allowed his long-st<strong>and</strong>ing dislike of Wilkins to influence hisjudgment regarding the<br />
Deacons . See Adam Fair+clough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Sout_h_ern<br />
Christian Ls~rshiQ Conference <strong>and</strong> Martin ~~t_E!er ICnQ,,,~r (Athens: University of<br />
Georgia Press, 1987), 313-1 S .<br />
13 6
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