Deacons for Defense review

For sure, always a relevant review.Dustin Langley in Workers reviews Deacons for Defense:"My name is Charles Sims. I'm 43 years old and I fear no man. Some ofyou may leave disappointed. I'm a fighter, not a speechmaker."These are the real words that the founder of Deacons of Defense used tointroduce himself in 1964 as he spoke about the struggle in Bogalusa,La. These words, backed by weapons and the determination of the AfricanAmerican community to defend themselves against racist attacks, won apowerful victory over the status quo of the Jim Crow South in the mid-1960s.As part of a series of film showings honoring Black History Month, thePeople's Video Network sponsored a Feb. 14 screening of the made-for-TVmovie "Deacons for Defense" in New York City. This film, starring ForestWhitaker and Ossie Davis, chronicles the rise of the Deacons for Defenseand Justice, who stood up against the violence of the Klan.The movie is set in Bogalusa in 1964. Relative to the population, theKKK chapter in segregated Bogalusa was the biggest in the country.Forest Whitaker stars as Marcus--a mill worker, World War II veteran andchurch leader who is compelled by escalating Klan and police attacks toorganize his community to defend itself. Marcus is a compositecharacter, based on Charles Sims and other leaders of the Deacons.The film clearly contrasts the futility of dogmatic non-violence, asopposed to the effectiveness of armed self-defense, as a response toKlan terror.The two northern white organizers in the film are pacifists. "Thismovement is nonviolent--that is the essence of the movement," says oneof them, played by Jonathan Silverman."Don't tell me about the essence of your summer vacation," respondsMarcus. "Alive is better."'YOU HAVE TO MEET FORCE WITH FORCE'In describing the actual struggle of his organization, Ernest Thomas,the vice president and national organizer for the Deacons for Defense,has stressed: "We teach that you have to meet force with force. The onlything the Klan respects is force. It is also the only thing understoodby the others who battle Negroes, such as the John Birch Society, theMinutemen, and the American Nazi Party."Many of the Black men who took up arms with the Deacons were militaryveterans who had fought overseas in the name of "democracy," but thenreturned home to continued denial of basic civil rights and economicopportunity.Their determination to defend themselves put an end to night riding inBogalusa and inspired others to take up arms to defend themselves. By1965, there were 62 chapters of the Deacons throughout the South, andthey helped to inspire the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.In the discussion after the Feb. 14 film showing, one of the viewers,Kedar Phillips, said, "What struck me was the fact that the Deacons ofDefense have been widely forgotten and don't get the recognition theydeserve."Other viewers agreed, noting the need to learn the lessons from theDeacons' struggle in these days of increasing violence againstimmigrants and people of color, such as the recent killing of a youngBlack man, Timothy Stansbury, by Brooklyn police.http://www.workers.org/ww/2004/deacons0226.php(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy anddistribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is notallowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,NY 10011)