In Ferriday, La., an ‘outlaw town,’ the Deacons took a stand

FERRIDAY, La. -- David Whatley, the first black student to integrate Ferriday High in 1966, returned from tortuous days at school only to face just as many threats outside his home.

Deacons for Defense and Justice defied segregation

A dozen times over three decades, Claiborne Parish resident Frederick Douglass Lewis had tried to register to vote in Louisiana, only to be denied time after time.

In Bogalusa, La., the Deacons fought violence with violence

BOGALUSA, La.--Fiery red dust filled the air as Henry Austan, a 21-year-old insurance bill collector for an African-American agency, sped down a Washington Parish dirt road during the early spring of 1965.

La. cops supported the Klan’s intimidation tactics. So the Deacons for Defense rose to protect black neighborhoods.

On a July night in Jonesboro, Louisiana, in 1964, the rumble of engines encroached on a quiet, black neighborhood then known as “The Quarters.” As residents stepped out onto their porches, they observed a line of cars—maybe 50 in all—with two to four men in each vehicle, their faces covered by white hoods.