Geography and Armed Self Defense along the Louisiana-Mississippi Border, Summer 1964

Geography was incredibly important to the Civil Rights Movement. The way the landscape and economy connected to people helped shape responses to non-violence, armed self defense, and Black Power. In my classroom, I use maps, statistics, images, and some geographic mapping along with original research to teach about how the Civil Rights Movement transitioned from non-violence in 1964 to armed self defense in 1965 to Black Power in 1966. Geography, culture, economics, and norms of masculinity intersected to create an environment that challenged non-violence and nurtured armed self-defense.

This paper will utilize the Tulane University Amistad Center’s oral testimonies of Louisiana and Mississippi activists from Freedom Summer. The activists discussed firefights and armed self defense at length in rural Mississippi and Louisiana, with an emphasis on the border. The landscape, industry, and people intersected to create a borderland that was uniquely dangerous, and challenged the most sacred tenants of non-violence. This borderland, long described by historians as “tough” and creating “tough people”, became one of the birthplaces for the Deacons for Defense and Justice, and for Black Power. It’s influence is important to the Civil Rights Movement.