1. Hill, Lance Edward. “The Deacons for ... - Freedom Archives

Some blacks in Jonesboro began to wonder ifthey had merely traded vigilante repression
for black police repression .
The wave of protests and arrests quickly brought tie Original Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan into the fray . After the day of arrests and turmoil, Jonesboro's black
neighborhood was plunged into complete darkness when electricity was mysteriously cut
off -- ostensibly to repair the power system . In the darkness Earnest Thomas joined a few
friends in front of a local hotel . As the men talked and joked Thomas noticed a flashing
red light in the distance . As it grew nearer, Thomas recognized that it was a police car
leading a caravan of more than filly vehicles . Children ran yelling with excitement to
greet the parade . But as the caravan grew nearer, Thomas caught his first glimpse ofthe
hooded men who filled each car, tossing leaflets into the street. Thomas was
dumbstruck : the assistant chief ofpolice was in the lead car escorting the Klan through
the black community . As each car passed Thomas noticed that the license tags had been
covered to conceal the identity ofthe Klansmen . But it was a small town and Thomas
and others easily recognized many of the cars as belonging to town locals, including
several upstanding white businessmen and even the owner of a focal grocery store in the
black community .
The site ofthe hooded convoy sent a shudder of fear through many ofthe older
blacks. But the children, oblivious to the danger, grabbed the swirling leaflets and
brought them to their anxious parents. The Klan leaflets warned blacks to distance
themselves from CORE and the civil rights movement .
Though the Klan convoy frightened the old, the invasion only further incensed the
younger men . A delegation ofblack men, including Thomas and some of the black
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