Remembering Robert Hicks and the Deacons of Defense

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.thesouthernshift.com/news/2010/04/remembering-robert-hicks-and-deacons-defense

Remembering Robert Hicks and the Deacons of Defense
Submitted by Southern Shift on Mon, 2010-04-26 11:32

The story around Robert Hicks and his group Deacons for Defense have all but been erased from public consciousness. You check on familiar touch points like YouTube and there's nothing there. Pictures are hard to find and articles are scant. The thought of armed Black men standing up to the KKK and successfully protecting lives and propert during the harsh days of the Jim Crow South is a scary thought for many. The truth of the matter is many African Americans did not sit back and just allow themselves to be beaten and terrorized by the KKK. Hicks represented an underplayed part of our history..


The passing of Robert Hicks will not be acknowledge on the same scale as the passing of Guru, Dr Dorothy Height and Benjamin Hooks but he is no less important. We tip our hat because he did what many have come to belive was the unthinkable.We also encourage folks to try and pick up a copy of the movie that stars Forest Whitaker


-Davey D-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25hicks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=robert%20hicks&st=cse

Robert Hicks, Leader in Armed Rights Group, Dies at 81
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: April 24, 2010

Someone had called to say the Ku Klux Klan was coming to bomb Robert Hicks’s house. The police said there was nothing they could do. It was the night of Feb. 1, 1965, in Bogalusa, La.

The Klan was furious that Mr. Hicks, a black paper mill worker, was putting up two white civil rights workers in his home. It was just six months after three young civil rights workers had been murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.

Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, made some phone calls. They found neighbors to take in their children, and they reached out to friends for protection. Soon, armed black men materialized. Nothing happened.

Less than three weeks later, the leaders of a secretive, paramilitary organization of blacks called the Deacons for Defense and Justice visited Bogalusa. It had been formed in Jonesboro, La., in 1964 mainly to protect unarmed civil rights demonstrators from the Klan. After listening to the Deacons, Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests....

To this day, some will deny that there was an armed element to the struggle for civil rights.

I salute you, Mister Hicks. You were a true patriot.

[David__77]

1. Armed self-defense is a right.

The KKK and their supporters in the white community were scared shitless by thought of armed Black people who would defend their rights.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. Some people are still scared shitless by the thought of armed Black people

They usually hide behind a feigned concern over crime...

[proteus_lives]

3. +1000

[AllyCat]

12. Exactly. They are all for the "2nd Amendment" until it appears it might give rights to brown people

This is a great read. Thanks for posting.

[Francis Marion]

4. Thanks for sharing.

I'd like to learn more about them. Thanks.

[X_Digger]

6. Here's a good book on the subject..

http://www.amazon.com/Deacons-Defense-Resistance-Rights-Movement/dp/0807857025/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279803762&sr=8-2

Forrest Whittaker made a movie about the Deacons, but I haven't seen it, so I can't say if it's any good.

eta: Some other titles:

http://www.amazon.com/Negroes-Guns-African-American-Life/dp/0814327141/ref=pd_cp_b_1

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Free-Dixie-Robert-Williams/dp/0807849235/ref=pd_cp_b_2

[pnorman]

13. Thanks for those links!

I had recently listened to the Audible.com edition of Freedom Summer, ans have a vague recollection of that. I was planning on a re-listen, and will now do so very soon.

[one-eyed fat man]

5. Complicity

"The police said there was nothing they could do."

People forget (or wish to ignore) that in many places the Klan was a powerful presence in the Democratic political machine and in law enforcement. The depredations of groups like the Klan, the White Camellias, with the tacit approval of local civil authorities caused the Congress to pass the 1866 Civil Rights Act.

It is not without symbolism that one of the tableau inside the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Cleveland depicts emancipation with Lincoln freeing a slave by putting a musket in his hands.






Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

[Statistical]

7. "depicts emancipation with Lincoln freeing a slave by putting a musket in his hands."

Without the right to keep and bear arms there are no other rights.

[jeepnstein]

8. Know Your Rights!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeWSpB_7w4

I just had to share that. It's one of those days.

[friendly_iconoclast]

10. Very cool, I have not seen that before.

I'm going to make that my .sig pic, just to rattle the cages of certain people...

[SteveM]

15. Great monument! Thanks for sharing. nt

[virginia mountainman]

9. Thanks for posting this!!!

People need to be reminded..

[spin]

11. K&R... RKBA guarantees freedom and equality. (n/t)

[GreenStormCloud]

14. The movie sucks.

Hollywood ruins any historic story that they touch. Hollywood changes the story to make it "better". The real story is much more powerful, but more subtle. The movie needs a big climax so Hicks and his friends all have M-16s and are lined up ready to shoot it out with local police, when the governor caves to the Feds and the battle is prevented. In real life, there were only a few shootings. Mostly they just showed up and escorted civil rights workers. In a couple of years the Deacons had many chapters in most cities, but as civil rights were improved and the violence lowered, the Deacons decided it was time to fade away.

In the first days of the real Deacons there was an defining incident. The Klan has been in the habit of driving through the black part of town and shooting up their homes. The Deacons organized and were ready for them the next time. The Deacons returned fire, and the Klan rapidly turned their pickups and cars around and left. No one was injured on either side, but the Klan didn't come back.

[spin]

16. Many current movies believe in ACTION and plenty of it ...

When the movies portray firearms and people using them, they often totally ignore basic gun safety. I personally fail to understand why some fool running around with his finger on the trigger of his weapon makes a film more exciting.

I agree that the real story of Robert Hicks and the Deacons of Defense is fascinating enough to make very powerful movie without changing the basic facts. It would have required more character development and some excellent direction and acting.

Making such a movie is difficult for Hollywood.