he international African American evangelist Earl E. Cleveland’s life spanned 30 years before the Civil Rights era and 40 years afterwards (1921-2009). Cleveland ministered to the whole person: feeding the hungry, providing health screenings and seminars, and prophetic preaching that inspired black urbanites with historical insights and a positive self-image.

Cleveland was a personal acquaintance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and actively engaged in organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1989, Cleveland published “The Exodus,” prominently featuring MLK on the cover.

On pages 51-52 of “The Exodus,” Cleveland wrote about the different historical prisms that white and black Americans use to view the criminal justice system. White “children look affectionately upon the neighborhood officer” as “their big brother” because that’s how he traditionally treated them.

Cleveland’s experience was the opposite: “I can remember my childhood fear of police, who could stop you at any point and call you ‘boy’ or ‘nigger,’ and you dared not object for fear of having your skull laid open with a billy club or being shot to death on the spot.”

He also pointed out “that this suspicion of law enforcement carries through to the courtroom” and the legislative system that has “deliberately enacted laws that would demean, degrade, and debase all black people.”

Because of these legal disparities, the black community insists that the phrase “law and order” must come “with justice.” The brutal truths recorded by Cleveland continue to be reenacted and livestreamed almost daily, so similar sentiments persist among many.

During the Civil Rights era, police would sometimes be open agents of white supremacy. At other times, they were passive accomplices who allowed terrorist groups like the KKK to unleash deadly violence. Cleveland said, “as a result, such organizations as the Deacons and the Black Panthers have arisen.”

I didn’t know what “Deacons” Cleveland was referring to until the 2003 movie “Deacons For Defense” (starring Forest Whitaker) came out. The Deacons for Defense and Justice was founded in 1964 in Jonesboro, Louisiana, by black veterans of WWII and the Korean War. They exercised their rights to bear arms to defend civil rights activists in their efforts to register voters, integrate public facilities, and protest for better working conditions.

There’s no indication that E.E. Cleveland had direct ties with the Deacons. Although the evangelist did evolve from only depending on God’s divine intervention when conducting tent meetings, to hiring “tent masters” who knew how to keep the peace.