''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 Richard Wesley (born July 11, 1945) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is an associate professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing. Early life Wesley w ...

and Frank Military. The film is loosely based on the activities of the

Deacons for Defense and Justice 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' ...

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 The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. During the summer of 1965, there were frequent conflicts between the Deacons and the Klan.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

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 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

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 Tyrone Benskin (born 29 December 1958) is an English-Canadian actor, theatre director and politician. He was elected Member of Parliament in the Jeanne-Le Ber riding, in Montreal, Quebec, in the 2011 Canadian federal election and served as an M ...

as Archie *

Paul Benjamin Paul Benjamin (February 4, 1938 – June 28, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades. Benjamin appeared in dozens of films and television shows beginning in the late 1960s. Biography Born to Fair, a Baptist preacher (1890– ...

as Otis * Melanie Nicholls-King as Rose Clay * Adam Weiner as Charles Hillibrand * Gene Mack as TJ * Mpho Koaho as Baily *

Rufus Crawford Rufus Crawford is an American actor and retired football player who was a running back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1979 through 1985. He broke the Canadian Football League yardage record which had stood for 28 years. He started his career in ...

as Deacon *

Brian Paul Brian E. Paul is a computer programmer who originally wrote and maintained the source code for the open source Mesa graphics library until 2012, and is still active in the project. He began writing its source code in August 1993. Mesa is a free ...

as Holden * Timothy Burd as Lester Conley * David Black as Alphin * Marcus Johnson as Young Marcus * Joe Bostick as City Attorney *

Francis X. McCarthy Francis Xavier McCarthy (born February 15, 1942) is an American actor who has appeared in films such as '' Interstellar'' (2014) and '' Deep Impact'' (1998). Filmography References External links * 1942 births Living people American ...

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

External links

* 2003 drama films 2003 television films 2003 films English-language Canadian films Canadian drama television films American drama television films Civil rights movement in film Films directed by Bill Duke Films about the Ku Klux Klan Films set in 1965 Films set in Louisiana African-American films Black Canadian films African-American drama films 2000s American films 2000s Canadian films {{civil-rights-movement-stub