Eyes on the Prize

Matt McKeon

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I use this series in the classroom every year. The three episodes I usually show feature school desegregation in Little Rock, with Ike finally sending in the paratroopers. It involves a high school and high school students, so my high schoolers relate a little bit.

The second is the confrontation at Selma, ending the first half of the series with King's triumphant speech, "no lie lives forever." with the bitter postscripts of the race riots in Northern cities and the murder of a Illinois housewife by klansmen as she was driving marchers back to Selma.

The third is the Boston Busing Crisis in the middle 1970s. Its more resonant with me, having lived in the city during the tail end of it, and for my students its relatively local.
 

Matt McKeon

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I've got to say, its a great series that has really stood the test of time. Grabs your attention, lays out both the strategy of the movement and its factions. Most of the talking heads were candid, although it turns out that George Wallace considers himself a great pioneer in civil rights. Ernest Green, the first African American to graduate from Central High School is especially has a engaging, wry ironic wit, both when being interviewed for the series, and at the time being interviewed by the press. "Was your year at Little Rock what you expected?" asks one earnest reporter. "Not exactly," he replied.
 

Kirk's Raider's

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I am not sure if Eyes in the Prize discuss the "Deacons for self defense" but they are a very interesting and unfortunately somewhat forgotten part of the 1960s Civil Rights struggle.
Kirk's Raider's
 

dedej

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I am not sure if Eyes in the Prize discuss the "Deacons for self defense" but they are a very interesting and unfortunately somewhat forgotten part of the 1960s Civil Rights struggle.
Kirk's Raider's
I am a big admirer of "The Deacons of Defense." I was told my Grandfather was a member of one of their Alabama chapters.

I loved the movie as well:


Another great is Robert F. Williams - you can read/learn more about him in Negroes with Guns.

Also, check out We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja.
 

5fish

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Here is from wiki... summary... never heard of them until today...

Link: Deacons for Defense and Justice - Wikipedia

The Deacons for Defense and Justice was an armed African-American self-defense group founded in November 1964, during the civil rights era in the United States, in the mill town of Jonesboro, Louisiana. On February 21, 1965—the day of Malcolm X's assassination—the first affiliated chapter was founded in Bogalusa, Louisiana, followed by a total of 20 other chapters in this state, Mississippi and Alabama. It was intended to protect civil rights activists and their families. They were threatened both by white vigilantes and discriminatory treatment by police under Jim Crow laws. The Bogalusa chapter gained national attention during the summer of 1965 in its violent struggles with the Ku Klux Klan.

By 1968, the Deacons' activities were declining,[1] following passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the entry of blacks into politics in the South, and the rise of the Black Power movement. Blacks worked to gain control of more political and economic activities in their communities.

A television movie, Deacons for Defense (2003), directed by Bill Duke and starring Forest Whitaker, was aired about the 1965 events in Bogalusa. The movie inspired Mauricelm-Lei Millere to meet Deacon Hicks at his Hicks House in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Robert "Bob" Hicks House in Bogalusa commemorates one of the leaders of the Deacons in that city; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Fundraising continues for a civil rights museum in Bogalusa to honor the work of the Deacons for Defense; it is expected to open in 2018.

FBI...
In February 1965, after an article in The New York Times about the Deacons in Jonesboro, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover became interested in the group. His office sent a memo to its Louisiana field offices: "Because of the potential for violence indicated, you are instructed to immediately initiate an investigation of the DDJ [Deacons for Defense and Justice]."[16] As was eventually exposed in the late 1970s, the FBI established the COINTELPRO program, through which its agents were involved in many illegal activities against organizations that Hoover deemed "a threat to the American way".[15]

The Bureau ultimately produced more than 1,500 pages of comprehensive and relatively accurate records on the Deacons and their activities, largely through numerous informants close to or who had infiltrated the organization.[16] Members of the Deacons were repeatedly questioned and intimidated by F.B.I. agents. Harvie Johnson (the last surviving original member of the Deacons for Defense and Justice) was interviewed by two agents during this period. He said they asked only how the Deacons obtained their weapons, never questioning him about the Klan activity or police actions they were responding to.[16] Although the FBI and white media regarded the Deacons as bringers of race warfare, they actually worked closely with CORE in their nonviolent protests as a way to bring about change in Bogalusa.[8] The Federal Government finally intervened and forced local police to uphold the law and protect citizens' right.[7] As a result of the Deacons' actions the Klan had to restrict themselves to night terror raids.[7] The Deacons served as a symbol of power and pride, and undermined the stereotype of black submission.[7]

According to columnist Ken Blackwell in 2007, activist Roy Innis had said that the Deacons "forced the Klan to re-evaluate their actions and often change their undergarments".[17]
 
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