The Deacons for Defense and Justice was a Black American self-defense group founded in November 1964, during the civil rights era in the United States, in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana.

Jun 17, 2022 · The Deacons for Defense and Justice was founded in 1964 in Jonesboro, Louisiana to protect civil rights activists from the Ku Klux Klan. The organization was made up of black veterans …

Deacons for Defense: Directed by Bill Duke. With Forest Whitaker, Chris Britton, Jonathan Silverman, Ossie Davis. In a Louisiana town in 1964, local African-Americans band together to protect …

Given these threats, Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick founded the Deacons for Defense to protect civil rights workers, their families, and the Black community.

Dec 19, 2025 · The Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed African-American self-defense group founded in 1964 by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick in Jonesboro, …

When Klansmen paraded through Jonesboro’s Black neighborhood in July 1964, the informal protective squad created an official defense unit to stop white supremacist terror. The organization was …

Dec 5, 2022 · The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an organization of Black men formed in Louisiana during the Civil Rights-era to protect Black people and neighborhoods, as well as Civil Rights …

Feb 27, 2006 · In 1964 a small group of African American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, defied the nonviolence policy of the mainstream civil rights movement and formed an armed self-defense …

Jul 10, 2025 · On this day in 1963, "a group of Black men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick, founded The Deacons for Defense and Justice to …

On July 10th 1964, a group of Black men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick, founded The Deacons for Defense and Justice to protect civil …