Jonesboro, Louisiana

==History==
Founded on January 10, 1860, by Joseph Jones and his wife, Sarah Pankey Jones, as a small family farm, Jonesboro is now a small industrial mill town. Originally founded as "Macedonia," the small town's name changed to Jonesboro on January 16, 1901, after the United States Post Office Department approved the change and became the seat of government for [[Jackson Parish, Louisiana|Jackson Parish]] on March 15, 1911, following a parish-wide referendum.<ref>https://jonesborola.org/about-us</ref> Jonesboro remains the parish's agricultural, industrial, economic, and governmental center.

During the [[Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1960s, whites violently resisted African-American efforts to gain their constitutional rights as citizens, even after the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. The [[Ku Klux Klan]], which was active in the area, conducted what was called a "reign of terror" in 1964, including harassment of activists, "the burning of crosses on the lawns of African-American voters," murder, and destroying five black churches by fire, as well as their Masonic hall, and a Baptist center.<ref name="MenkartMurray2004">{{cite book | editor-first1 = Deborah | editor-last2 = Murray | editor-first2 = Alana D. | editor-last3 = View | edition = 1st | publisher = Teaching for Change and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council | isbn = 9781878554185 | last = James-Wilson | first = Sonia | title = Putting the ''Movement'' Back Into Civil Rights Teaching: A Resource Guide for K-12 Classrooms | chapter = Understanding Self-Defense in the Civil Rights Movement Through Visual Arts | location = Washington, D.C | date = 2004 | chapter-url = http://www.civilrightsteaching.org/Handouts/UnderstandingSelf-Defense.pdf | editor-last = Menkart | access-date = 2017-05-18 | archive-date = 2012-02-22 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120222193021/http://www.civilrightsteaching.org/Handouts/UnderstandingSelf-Defense.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="Hill">{{Cite book | publisher = University of North Carolina Press | isbn = 9780807828472 | last = Hill | first = Lance E. | edition = 1 | title = The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement | location = Chapel Hill | date = 2004 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/deaconsfordefens00hill_0 }}{{page needed|date=May 2013}}</ref>

In November 1964, Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas and [[Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick]] (the latter ordained that year as a minister of the [[Church of God in Christ]]), founded the [[Deacons for Defense and Justice]] in Jonesboro. It was an armed self-defense group, largely made up of men who were World War II and Korean War veterans. At night, they conducted regular patrols of the city's black community which occupied an area known as "the Quarters".<ref name="Hill"/><ref name="MenkartMurray2004"/> They protected civil rights activists and their families during and outside demonstrations. At the request of activists in [[Bogalusa, Louisiana|Bogalusa]], another mill town where blacks were under pressure from violent whites, Thomas and Kirkpatrick helped found an affiliated chapter in that city.<ref name="Hill"/> Ultimately there were 21 chapters in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, operating through 1968. In Jonesboro, the Deacons achieved some changes, such as integrating parks and a swimming pool. Activists achieved more after congressional passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] and their entry into politics.