The Deacons for Defense
Subtitle: armed resistance and the civil rights movement
By: Lance Hill.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 363
Subjects: Deacons for Defense and Justice -- History.; Ku Klux Klan (1915- ) -- History -- 20th century.; African American civil rights workers -- Louisiana -- Jonesboro -- History -- 20th century.; Self-defense -- Political aspects -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century.; Political violence -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century.; African Americans -- Civil rights -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century.; Civil rights movements -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century.; Southern States -- Race relations.; Louisiana -- Race relations.; Mississippi -- Race relations.
Description: "Lance Hill offers the first detailed history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who grew to several hundred members and twenty-one chapters in the Deep South and led some of the most successful local campaigns in the civil rights movement. In his analysis of this important yet long-overlooked organization, Hill challenges what he calls "the myth of nonviolence"--The idea that a united civil rights movement achieved its goals through nonviolent direct action led by middle-class and religious leaders. In contrast, Hill constructs a rich historical narrative of a working-class armed self-defense movement that defied the entrenched nonviolent leadership and played a crucial role in compelling and federal government to neutralize the Klan and uphold civil rights and liberties."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [335]-351) and index.