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

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.
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