One was a recording of the 1978 Louisiana Folk Fest, an annual event which Kirkpatrick had conceived and regularly hosted, to preserve and celebrate musical culture.

[1] Kirkpatrick became a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which formed in the 1950s to work for civil rights of African Americans by gathering together the power of their churches.

Faced with continued violence from KKK members, in November 1964 Kirkpatrick and Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas co-founded the Deacons for Defense and Justice in the town in Jackson Parish.

The minority of black workers had been in class conflict with whites for years, in addition to struggling with oppression under the state's Jim Crow laws.

As black workers sought civil rights in Jonesboro, they had come under intimidation and attack by members of the local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter.

Kirkpatrick and Thomas formed the Deacons for Defense and Justice as an armed group to protect civil rights workers, their families and the black community.

Armed defense had been increasingly a part of black strategy since 1960 in such cities as Clarksdale and Natchez, Mississippi, and in rural areas of the state, even among NAACP leaders.

Brother Kirkpatrick sang "Bring 'Em Home" and "Give Peace a Chance" on stage with Pete Seeger at the enormous anti-Vietnam War march and rally on November 15, 1969, in Washington, DC, inspiring an audience of more than half a million people.

In 1972, Kirkpatrick recorded Ballads of Black America (FW07751), as lead singer and guitar, with Pete Seeger, playing banjo, and Jeanne Humphries on bass.

Kirkpatrick's ballads honor seven leaders, including Harriet Tubman, Paul Robeson, and Martin Luther King Jr., and the Deacons for Defense and Justice.

John L. Kirkpatrick; his stepmother, Arabella; three daughters, Cameillia Ann, Alfreda Denise and Brunella Roanna, and a son, Howard Curtis, all of Grambling; four sisters, Mary Helen Staten of Lafayette, La., Lovie Leola Stakes of Chicago, Lucille Bradford of Midland, Tex., and Mae Faye Hunter of Argo, Ill.; a brother, Robert L. Kirkpatrick of Dallas, and seven grandchildren.