They organized men for armed self-defense in order to protect civil rights activists and their families, under attack in those years by the Ku Klux Klan.

Despite passage the previous year of the national Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting segregation of public facilities, local whites continued to exclude blacks from parks and other places.

Fueled by discriminatory practices & violent intimidation that permeated his community, threatened his family & friends, Mr. Hicks developed an unquenchable thirst for justice & equality.

His involvement in planning rallies, marches, daily demonstrations, boycotts, organizing armed protection for targets of racially & politically motivated violence, & initiating successful legal challenges helped topple segregation ending "separate but unequal" practices in education, employment, law, government, voting rights, healthcare & housing.

On Feb 21, the Jonesboro Deacons for Defense & Justice visited Bogalusa to start a chapter citing the 2nd Amendment and carrying guns with the mission of protection against white aggression.

The Hicks' home was the birth & meeting place for Deacons, foot soldiers, lawyers, civil & human rights advocates, and a safe haven for all.