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Robert Hicks has died.
Who?
From The Times-Picayune:
Robert Hicks, a lion in the Louisiana civil rights movement whose legal victories helped topple segregation in Bogalusa and change discriminatory employment practices throughout the South, died Tuesday in his home. He was 81.
What does that have to do with the right of the people to keep and bear arms?
The Hicks family opened their home to white civil rights workers and national figures such as entertainer Dick Gregory and Congress of Racial Equality head James Farmer. Because of that, the family was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, which in turn motivated the formation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed band of African-American men who stood guard at the Hicks' home and protected civil rights workers in the city. The 2003 Showtime movie "Deacons for Defense" was loosely based on the group.
The New York Times, of all papers, has more. Much more, and what a good job obituary writer Douglas Martin has done:
Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests.
...They carried guns, with the mission to protect against white aggression, citing the Second Amendment.
We've talked about such history here before. Chicago Congress of Racial Equality Chairman Ralph Conner cites my piece on his "Views from Chicago" blog, listing sources promoting "No Guns for Negroes," a DVD produced by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership that he is featured in.
Back to The Times memorial:
By 1968, the Deacons had pretty much vanished. In time they were “hardly a footnote in most books on the civil rights movement,” Mr. Hill said. He attributed this to a “mythology” that the rights movement was always nonviolent.
Mrs. Hicks said she was glad it was not.
“I became very proud of black men,” she said. “They didn’t bow down and scratch their heads. They stood up like men.”
As should we all.
Here's to the the day when the media can extend such treatment to all seeking justice and defense, regardless of race, instead of conflating those of us who believe in that with haters.
Comments
Deacons for Defense were and are heroes. Of course, they cannot be more than a minor footnote. Wouldn't folks (of any color) getting all uppity and acting like men because they saw an example of its effectiveness.
The Deacons for Defense used firearms to keep the peace. No one would protect the civil rights workers. If these men hadn't of done what they did, there would have been many more beatings and killings. These men are heros in my book. It's nice to do things peacefully, but sometimes self-defense is mandatory.
He will be missed by Second Amendment supporters everywhere - (at least by me...a great person)
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