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Deacons for Defense | |
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Teleplay by | Richard Wesley Frank Military |
Story by | Michael D'Antonio |
Directed by | Bill Duke |
Starring | Forest Whitaker Christopher Britton Ossie Davis Jonathan Silverman Adam Weiner Marcus Johnson |
Theme music composer | Michel Colombier |
Country of origin | United States Canada |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Robert Rehme |
Editor | Harry Keramidas |
Running time | 95 minutes |
Original release | |
Release | February 16, 2003 |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
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 and Frank Military.
The film is loosely based on the activities of the Deacons for Defense and Justice 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. During the summer of 1965, there were frequent conflicts between the Deacons and the Klan.[1][2]