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
local NAACP led a march in Woodville, Mississippi to protest Negro teacher: who did not favor blacks running in Democratic primaries . At the march, police disarrmed Deacons who were pr+esent.~ Curiously, as the Deacons faded from the scene, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with characteristic untimeliness, targeted the organization to be "disrupted" and "neutralized," along with SNCC, SC1:C, CORE, the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), and the Nation of Islam . Director J . Edgar Hoover addressed a memo headed "Personal Attention to All Offices" on August 2S, 1967 concerning what he termed "Black Nationalist Hate Groups ." The Deacons were later downgraded as a primary target, displaced by the other groups because of the national scope of these organizations and their "most violent and radical" orientations Contrary to FBI sources, the Deacons tried to avoid provoking a clash of arms, though their opponents argued that by arming themselves in the first place, the Deacons instigated conflict in an already explosive situation . Did possessing weapons create violence? Sims and his cohorts felt that having weapons at hand effectively deterred violence . Discussing armed self-defense and exhibiting a proclivity to fight back seemed to fuel progress in the struggle for black equality in Bogalusa . Sims found that merely showing a weapon could often avert violence. `"fhe showing of a weapon stops many ~"Mississippi March by Negroes Halted," New York Times (September S, 1967): 31 . ''The Declassified Documents, FBI Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) File (August 27,1964-April 28, 1971), Deacons for Defense and Justice File, serial S ; see also Kenneth O'Reilly, Racial Manlrs : The FBCs Secret File on Black America, 1960-197, (New York : The Fr+oe Pn:as,1989). 14 0
things," he said. "Everybody want to live and nobody want to die."~° Simply being seen with Sims was insurance enough for many local blacks . "I'm one of the few peoples who is really known as a Deacon and anybody that I associate with, they whites] just take for granted they arc Deacons;' Sims explained. "I show up, then ten, twelve more mens show up, whether they Deacons or not, they branded." In this case, being "branded" as a Deacon meant freedom from molestation by whites . 7 ~ A t';ne line existed, and still exists, between self-defense and aggressive violence . The position where an aggressor threatened another's right to life, thereby legitimating self-defense, and where a defender no longer acted purely in self-defense, switched quickly in hot spots such as 8ogalusa. The Deacons could have slipped across the precipice of legitimacy at any time, crossing into the morally questionable realm of aggressive violence . Where the two planes intersated was not always clear, as Charles Sims illustrated: See, we had made up our mind on one thing . I know where just about every honkie here live . If he'd attacked any my mens, he couldn't go to his house and sleep no more,'cause if he do, I don't know what woulda happened to him. I won't say we'da killed him . I got more sense than to use those words, but Pm not sure what would have happened .'2 Sims came perilously close to promising retributive violence, but did not. Undoubtedly, the threat existed, whether he verbally expressed it or not . The Deacons seemed aware of their precarious position, and took pains to avoid the labels "aggressive" or "violent ." '°Sims, quoted in Grant, Flack Protest , 361 . nom. ~2Sims, quoted in Raines, My Soul is (tested. 419. 141
- Page 111 and 112: The best descriptor of Malcolm X wa
- Page 113 and 114: qualities in themselves. Finally, a
- Page 115 and 116: someone is treating you in a crimin
- Page 117 and 118: "You can't take a black man who is
- Page 119 and 120: attacked . Now, fve never been the
- 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
- Page 133 and 134: journalist, labeled them "the South
- 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 and 158: they were bound to precipitate a ca
- Page 159 and 160: goals of the movement. A year later
- Page 161: Sellers noted that while King was f
- Page 165 and 166: the group . For example, an intervi
- Page 167 and 168: "Understand, the Deacons don't repl
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- Page 171 and 172: self-defense denotation from the of
- Page 173 and 174: Lowndes County lies in the heart of
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- Page 177 and 178: On Monday, November 7,1966, the nig
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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
- Page 191 and 192: They also displayed a propensity to
- Page 193 and 194: Newton viewed violence as not simpl
- Page 195 and 196: Williams, a Panther. "We'd read Nat
- Page 197 and 198: Newton, Seale, and Cleaver had all
- Page 199 and 200: Simultaneously, they shouldered the
- Page 201 and 202: The Deacons for Defense and Justice
- Page 203 and 204: "The army turned on itself . . . Th
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- Page 209 and 210: exposed the actions of some policem
- Page 211 and 212: think in terms of armed conflict."~
local NAACP led a march in Woodville, Mississippi to protest Negro teacher: who did<br />
not favor blacks running in Democratic primaries . At the march, police disarrmed<br />
Deacons who were pr+esent.~<br />
Curiously, as the Deacons faded from the scene, the Federal Bureau of<br />
Investigation, with characteristic untimeliness, targeted the organization to be "disrupted"<br />
<strong>and</strong> "neutralized," along with SNCC, SC1:C, CORE, the Revolutionary Action Movement<br />
(RAM), <strong>and</strong> the Nation of Islam . Director J . Edgar Hoover addressed a memo headed<br />
"Personal Attention to All Offices" on August 2S, 1967 concerning what he termed<br />
"Black Nationalist Hate Groups ." The Deacons were later downgraded as a primary<br />
target, displaced by the other groups because of the national scope of these organizations<br />
<strong>and</strong> their "most violent <strong>and</strong> radical" orientations<br />
Contrary to FBI sources, the Deacons tried to avoid provoking a clash of arms,<br />
though their opponents argued that by arming themselves in the first place, the Deacons<br />
instigated conflict in an already explosive situation . Did possessing weapons create<br />
violence? Sims <strong>and</strong> his cohorts felt that having weapons at h<strong>and</strong> effectively deterred<br />
violence . Discussing armed self-defense <strong>and</strong> exhibiting a proclivity to fight back seemed<br />
to fuel progress in the struggle for black equality in Bogalusa . Sims found that merely<br />
showing a weapon could often avert violence. `"fhe showing of a weapon stops many<br />
~"Mississippi March by Negroes Halted," New York Times (September S, 1967): 31 .<br />
''The Declassified Documents, FBI Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO)<br />
File (August 27,1964-April 28, 1971), Deacons for Defense <strong>and</strong> Justice File, serial S ; see<br />
also Kenneth O'Reilly, Racial Manlrs : The FBCs Secret File on Black America,<br />
1960-197, (New York : The Fr+oe Pn:as,1989).<br />
14 0
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