Title: The Deacons for Defense
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.
Subjects: African American civil rights workers, African Americans, Civil rights, Civil rights movements, Deacons for Defense and Justice, History, Ku Klux Klan (1915- ), Political aspects of Self-defense, Political violence, Race relations, Self-defense, Ku klux klan (1915-), Civil rights workers, African americans, civil rights, Southern states, race relations, Political aspects
Places: Jonesboro, Louisiana, Mississippi, Southern States
Time periods: 20th century