Black History Month Film Screening

To close out Black History Month, join us for a screening and discussion of “Deacons for Defense” on Thursday, February 29th @ 7pm at the Atlanta Liberation Center!

The film is loosely based on the activities of the Deacons for Defense and Justice in 1965 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The African-American self-defense organization was founded in February 1965 as an affiliate of the founding chapter in Jonesboro, Louisiana, to protect activists working with the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), others advancing the Civil Rights Movement, and their families.

Bogalusa was a company town, developed in 1906–1907 around a sawmill and paper mill operations. In the 1960s, the area was dominated by the Ku Klux Klan. During the summer of 1965, there were frequent conflicts between the Deacons and the Klan. This film depicts some of this struggle in service of the overall fight for civil rights and justice against racist vigilantes.