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

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 .
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