The Deacons of Defense were a huge part of history that many people do not know about. The Deacons of Defense were a group of African Americans males that finally took a stand to the Ku Klux Klan. They started off as a church group that gathered every week to discuss the issues of the town they stay in. Everything changed when a couple of white activist from the north came to their town to spark a nonviolent movement. Although, around this time, civil rights movements were just starting to make a change, but the adults in this town were still in disbelief. The two activist captured the likes of the youth, and planned to march and protest for justice. Violent outbreaks began surfacing all over the city, even attacking the kids as well. That’s when things changed. The males of that church decided that they had had enough. They assembled with their own weapons everywhere the kids went to ensure that the kids were safe. They were prepared to die for their rights. Eventually they succeeded and the supreme court sent fourth provisions to ensure the safety of African Americans as well as the whites against their will.
For many years in the early 1900s the question for African Americans stayed remained the same. No one could understand how they could willingly accept all of the abuse they received at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. More than that people wanted to know why no one ever successfully fought back. The strength was in the numbers. African Americans made up a huge majority of the populations in the major cities and states in the south. If they had them out numbered why didn’t they fight back?
On July 10, 1964, only eight days after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, Earnest Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick created ...
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...rch Against Fear. As important as they group was to civil rights, there is not many documented members still on file. People were often very quiet about their affiliation with the Deacons for Defense. Many people had fears that they would lose their jobs or would be harassed if anyone knew about their affiliation. Despite their little known history, it is exciting to know that someone was not afraid to fight back. This shows the bravery and pride of African American men to protect their families and friends, knowing death was a possibility. It is amazing to read up on something so relevant in history that, if not looked up, would never be known.
Works Cited
Watson, Elwood. “Deacons for Defense and Justice.” Black Past, 2004
Web.
Garrett, Ben. “The Use of Guns in the Civil Rights Movement.” About,
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Hill, Lance. “The Deacons for Defense.” UNC, 2005
Web.
Also citizens groups such as the KKK created an environment of fear that stopped white people who may have helped black Americans improve their lives. It also prevented many blacks from trying to take advantage of the rights the Amendments had given them.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
obvious reasons. During this time in America, the African American community represented only ten percent of the total population. King felt that this made it impossible for African Americans who lack access to weapons to successfully wage a violent revolution against the white majority. Any attacks by the civil rights workers or their followers would surely result in counter attacks by
Black caucuses developed in the Catholic, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches. "The central thrust of these new groups was to redefine the meaning and role of the church and religion in the lives of black people. Out of this reexamination has come what some have called Black Theology.... ... middle of paper ...
The 1960’s was an era of constant turmoil as a result of the fight for equal rights for all races, a fight led by the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Even before they were both murdered, the mostly peaceful Civil Rights movement was gaining traction, but still actually gaining equal rights at a painfully slow pace. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party emerged as a revolutionary group who aimed to change not only the unfair government but the slow pace at which the Civil Rights Movement was progressing. In the late 1960’s and the 1970’s, The Black Panther’s consistently stood up for their beliefs on Civil Rights and were successful in changing it into
The Ku Klux Klan, otherwise known as the KKK, was flourishing with its second era in the 1920’s. The KKK was reinvigorated by William J. Simmons, a man who was a frequent joiner of clubs, through the period of the 1920’s, The KKK launched a campaign of political correctness as well as a hidden, dark movement which included lynching, beatings, tarring and feathering, and at some points, even murder of what they believed was the inferiors. Although this status was short lived, it was a dark, mysterious portion of the United States’ history and should never be forgotten.
The pursuit of freedom, recognition, and protection under the Constitution has been a struggle for African Americans. Their journey has been filled with slavery, physical and psychological torture, and persecution. While most of their hardships were experienced in the South, the North was not considered a safe haven unless an African American was a documented free slave. Even then they were not considered equal for a long time. While black and white abolitionists and free slaves in America were advocating abolishing slavery, Southern whites were willing to defend slavery's existence until they were forced to abandon it. This force, rooted in ethnocentrism, power, racism, and the pursuit of wealth, was difficult to overcome, but ultimately it was defeated through education, civil war, conflicting economic interests, rebellions, and courage.
When Afro-American’s came to America in hopes of having a better and easier way of life, and after they arrived it was a totally opposite of what they expected. The following are a couple events that took place in different locations for the fight for freedom and right. The first is Bloody Sunday; which took place in Selma, Alabama. This particular event was the march of black activists from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Thomas-Samuel (1996) stated that “In 1965, Alabama state troopers and local deputies stopped and clubbed black activists as they marched peacefully….” (para. 1). These people just wanted to make a point by marching from one city to another and they got beating just for it. Next is the fight for...
Professional champions of civil rights and civil liberties have been unwilling to defend the underlying principle of the right to arms. Even the conservative defense has been timid and often inept, tied less, one suspects, to abiding principle and more to the dynamics of contemporary Republican politics. Thus a right older than the Republic, one that the drafters of two constitutional amendments the Second and the Fourteenth intended to protect, and a right whose critical importance has been painfully revealed by twentieth-century history, is left undefended by the lawyers, writers, and scholars we routinely expect to defend other constitutional rights. Instead, the Second Amendment’s intellectual as well as political defense has been left in the unlikely hands of the National Rifle Association (NRA). And although the NRA deserves considerably better than the demonized reputation it has acquired, it should not be the sole or even principal voice in defense of a major constitutional provision.
There was no justice and human dignity between blacks and whites because blacks became victim of brutality by those who are depriving them of their rights to do whatever necessary to protect themselves. An example Malcolm stated when the police were putting water hoses on blacks and throwing tear gas at them and they met a hail of stones, a hail of rocks, a hail of bricks in Cleveland. Black American realized that the only way for them to gain their respect and freedom was to fight back and Malcolm gave an example how George Washington fought for independence violently. Malcolm realized the need to fight for all blacks over the world since if one black gets treated anyhow and nothing is done, another black in another country or place would face the same fate and get treated anyhow without any consequences hence freedom must be attain violently and he did not care if it would involve shedding of blood. Malcolm stated, “What happens to a black man in America today happens to the black man in Africa. What happens to a black man in America and Africa happens to the black man in Asia and to the man down in Latin America”. Over all, about twenty two million African Americans were ready to fight for
The inequality seen in American history has impacted all American citizens in different ways. Through the years, the people living in America have seen the different measures variety of racist groups do to make certain people stay at the bottom of the hierarchy in American society. One group that targets African Americans is the Ku Klux Klan. They are better known as the KKK, who wear hooded white outfit covering their faces shielding their identities. They committed hate crimes that led to the injuries and deaths of countless people. Due to the actions the Ku Klux Klan have committed, they are judged by American people with numerous perspectives explaining how these groups have impacted their life in America.
Although African Americans were finally able to gain back their freedom; they did not gain equality in the eyes of their former oppressors. Resentful of the newfound freedom of African Americans, laws known as Jim Crow laws were established throughout the United Stated by states and local governments. These discriminatory laws worked to systematically oppress African Americans through segregation and violence. They were segregated from whites; forbidden to attend the same schools, eat in the same restaurants or intermarry. African Americans were treated as second class citizens; lesser beings that had no rights. “Blacks could not vote, sue whites, testify against them, raise their voice to them or even look them in the eye or stay on the sidewalk if they passed.” (BL p.98) The era of Jim Crow was a dangerous time where even a glance was enough for an African American to be murdered. But there was only so much abuse that would be withstood. The winds of change were beginning to stir and African Americans and their supporters were beginning to demand their equality.
A hate group can never be explained, only accepted and fought against. For an unjustified reason in 1915, The Ku Klux Klan was born and spread its hate across the United States. The Klan started small, but gained millions of members in just a few short years. The Klan preached its beliefs to all Americans and urged everyone to join for the good of their country. Thousands of innocent people were slain because of their backgrounds. The Ku Klux Klan was a horrible group that became a symbol of crime and lawlessness. The Klan's views were based on white supremacy and unfortunately carried into the minds of millions. Although the Klan lasted only a short while, they made a mark in history and were one of the largest organized groups in America at the time. It is very difficult to understand how a terrible group such as the Ku Klux Klan gained so much power. For this reason alone, I have chosen to question the leading theorists on the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's and what they believed caused the rise in Klan membership. It is very evident that the theorists believed there were three main causes in this significant rise in membership. The post-war feelings of many Americans, the natural aversion to anything foreign, and the propaganda spread by the Klan itself caused their success.
It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....
Being African American in the south during the 1900’s was not a thing to be proud of. They were segregated and also treated with extreme disrespect, but they did not go a long silently. Opposition to segregation was very common, but finally during the 1960’s African Americans banded together to end segregation and gain the rights they deserve.