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

was soon dispersed and several armed black men surreptitiously stood guard the rest of
the night from adjacent rooftops .
The Klan parade and the mob scene at the Parish jail were the last straw. These
were dark days for the civil rights movement across the South. In nearby Philadelphia,
N>ississippi, the National Guard was combing the woods for Chaney, Goodman and
Schwerner, the civil rights workers murdered by the Klan--with police complicity .
Whatever trust the Jonesboro black community once had for the local police had been
extinguished by the recent police harassment and collusion with the Klan .
Moreover, the black police squad had been helpless against the mob action and
the Klan caravan . Despite their efforts to the contrary, the squad had become the
unwitting tool of the white power structure in neutralizing the protest movement .
Kirkpatrick had managed to finesse several encounters, but he could not overcome
problems posed by the contradictory role ofthe squad : in the final analysis, their
authority was not derived from the black community, but from the white establishment
that supported segregation . It was naive to assume that the custodians of white
supremacy would willingly organize and arm their own grave diggers . The only reliable
means ofdefense would be an independent self-defense organization, exclusively
accountable to the black community . Power had to be seized, not bequeathed .
The arrogant and insulting intrusion ofthe Klan in the black conununity had left
many of the black men angry and impatient for action. The practical issue of protecting
the commutity was paramount, but the Klansmen's caravan was more symbol than
substance . For many ofthe black men, the issue was primarily honor, not safety .