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Deacons for Defense is a 2003 American television drama film directed by Bill Duke. The television film stars Forest Whitaker, Christopher Britton, Ossie Davis, Jonathan Silverman, Adam Weiner, and Marcus Johnson. Based on a story by Michael D'Antonio, the teleplay was written by Richard Wesley and Frank Military.

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.

Plot

Marcus Clay (modeled on Bob Hicks) organizes an all-black group dedicated to patrolling the black section of town and protecting residents from "white backlash" in 1965. Activists continue the struggle to gain social justice after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending legal racial segregation.

Main cast

• Forest Whitaker as Marcus Clay
• Ossie Davis as Reverend Gregory
• Christopher Britton as William Chase
• Jonathan Silverman as Michael Deane
• Tyrone Benskin as Archie
• Paul Benjamin as Otis
• Melanie Nicholls-King as Rose Clay
• Adam Weiner as Charles Hillibrand
• Gene Mack as TJ
• Mpho Koaho as Baily
• Rufus Crawford as Deacon
• Brian Paul as Holden
• Timothy Burd as Lester Conley
• David Black as Alphin
• Marcus Johnson as Young Marcus
• Aaron Walpole as Jimmy
• Joe Bostick as City Attorney
• Francis X. McCarthy as Judge Christenberry
• Shawn Corbett as Federal Agent
• Matt Birman as Rioter
• Craig Eldridge as US Attorney
• Patricia Shirley as Church Singer
• Sharon Riley as Church Singer
• Quancetia Hamilton as Woman

References

1. Seth Hague, " 'Niggers Ain’t Gonna Run This Town': Militancy, Conflict and the Sustenance of the Hegemony in Bogalusa, Louisiana", Outstanding History Paper (1997–1998), Loyola University-New Orleans; accessed 11 May 2017
2. "The Deacons". Gimlet Media. Undone. 21 November 2016. Archived from the original on 4 November 2017. Retrieved 2016-11-24.

External links

• Deacons for Defense at IMDb

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• Films directed by Bill Duke
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• Films set in 1965
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