Honoring the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice

A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker honoring the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice will be unveiled Saturday, November 9, with a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. at Zion Chapel A.M.E. Church at 228 North Dr. M.L. King Jr. St. The ceremony will be followed by the unveiling of the marker at 319 North Dr. M.L. King Jr. St., which is the site of the two-story building that was home to Donnan’s Barbershop, the meeting place for the Deacons. This event is free to the public. It is organized by the Natchez Civil Rights Trail Committee.

Speakers will include Dr. Akinyele Umoja, author of “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement” (NYU Press, 2013); Willie Carter, owner of Donnan’s Barbershop; Alderwoman Felicia Bridgewater-Irving, Ward 4; Rev. Dr. Robert James, president of the Mississippi NAACP; Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis, president of the Natchez NAACP; John Travis Spann, program and outreach officer for Mississippi Humanities Council; and Mayor Dan Gibson.

The Deacons for Defense and Justice was a paramilitary organization that provided armed protection for the civil rights workers and the Black community in the 1960s.

The Mississippi Freedom Trail markers are approved by Visit Mississippi and Mississippi Humanities Council. The markers serve to commemorate the people and places in the state that played a pivotal role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

For more information on the November 9 unveiling ceremony, call 601-492-3004.