The city of Natchez, MS, has announced its second marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail, located at Donnan’s Barbershop, the birthplace of the Deacons for Defense and Justice in Natchez in the 1960s.
The Deacons for Defense and Justice was first organized in 1964 in Jonesboro, LA, in response to increasing violence against civil rights activists and the lack of protection for Black communities. The Deacons aimed to provide armed protection for civil rights workers and the Black community against the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacy groups. The Natchez Deacons organized in September 1965.
