“The right to defend your people and your community is a human right that no race gives or takes away from another,” said December 12th Movement member Omowale Clay. “This Black History Month, we pay tribute to those Black Men who stood up in armed defense of the Civil Rights Movement, and in so doing and unbeknownst to many, raised our liberation movement to the international level of human rights.”
Clay continued, “The film, ‘The Deacons for Defense,’ tells a small part of this true story, a message of courage and fearlessness that was consciously hidden from the central story line of the Civil Rights Movement—a very serious attempt to paint our struggle into a box of non-violence, white paternalism and U.S. government protection. However, recent books like ‘We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement,’ written by professor Akinyele Omowale Umoja, and the story of one of the Deacons, Robert Hicks, from Bogalusa, La., has pulled back the covers on some of these courageous Brothers and the movement that supported their efforts.”
The film will be screened at Sistas’ Place, Friday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. Clay urges folk to arrive on time as space is limited. Call 718-398-1766 for more information.