Their face is often camouflaged by a scarf pulled up to the nose or by a balaclava.
They are all heavily armed - the weapons are well loaded - cannon turned towards the ground and bullets stowed in an ammunition belt carried over the shoulder.
They advance in military formation or position themselves strategically as soldiers at the front.
All of the members of this self-proclaimed militia are black.
These are the members of the NFAC, “Not Fucking Around Coalition”, a name that could be translated as “The coalition that does not joke”.
Read also: United States: in Portland, the battle between anti-racist activists and the federal police
On Saturday September 5, about 250 members of this "black militia", as they are used to defining themselves, took part in the anti-racism demonstration in Louisville.
The rally aimed to demand justice for the death of Breonna Taylor, shot by police in her apartment on March 13, 2020.
Members of the NFAC in Louisville.
Brandon Bell / AFP
During the event, NFAC leader "Grandmaster Jay" provoked police officers on guard but the group then retreated without incident.
An NFAC member stationed in Louisville.
Brandon Bell / AFP
Contempt for "Black Lives Matter"
NFAC members are becoming more and more known during anti-racism demonstrations.
Their primary goal is to confront white supremacists, also armed for the most part.
In Stone Mountain (Georgia), on July 4, Independence Day, the leader of the group said in his megaphone: “
I don't see a white militia, we are here.
Where are you ?
We are at home ”.
Affiliates of the "Not fucking around coalition", however, refuse "
to be associated with the activists of Black Lives Matter (BLM), because they despise them, feel that they react with emotion and bring thugs into their movement.
Conversely, the NFAC wants to be a square and military organization which does not accept excesses
”, specifies in
Figaro
Cécile Coquet-Mokoko, professor of cultural history of the United States, Afro-American studies.
In Louisville, the NFAC also left the scene when BLM protesters joined the mobilization, not wishing to be held responsible in the event of tensions.
Read the file: Death of George Floyd, demonstrations against police violence, anti-racism ... a look back at a global phenomenon
The members of this young militia which appeared for the first time on the sidelines of the mobilization in tribute to Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick (Georgia), last May, like to set themselves up as vigilantes.
On July 4, in Stone Moutain, "
the black inhabitants reacted very favorably on seeing them, believing they were protected from white supremacist groups, also armed
".
On that day, they marched through the national park that has served several times as a meeting place for the Klu Klux Klan and where the statues of Thomas Jackson, Robert Lee, and Jefferson Davis, respectively General, Commander and President of the States are located. Confederates during the Civil War.
Sculptures that the NFAC and activists of the Black Lives Matter movement wish to see disappear.
Separatists
Their frontman, "Grandmaster Jay", real name John Fitzgerald Johnson, is a former military, rapper, producer and DJ.
He ran independently in the 2016 US presidential election and received 47 votes.
Grandmaster Jay describes the NFAC as an organization that could have the slogan “eye for an eye, tooth for tooth”.
Like the leader, the other supporters, men and women, mostly seem to be veterans experienced in handling weapons.
Separatist, "
the small group is inspired by the Black Panther of the late 1960s
", explains Cécile Coquet-Mokoko.
They thus claim the right to obtain a territory for all the descendants of African American slaves where only black people could settle and where segregation against whites would reign.
In this case, the NFAC wants the US government to deliver Texas to them.
"
An unrealistic demand, the State's resource in oil wealth making the claim improbable
", judges the specialist.
This militia has many points in common with the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA), a pro-gun lobby similar to the National Rifle Association (NRA) but which recruits among African Americans and encourages the African American population to buy. their weapons at the black gunsmiths.
“
The NFAC proclaims: 'We too are citizens and therefore we have the right to protest in the streets and to bear arms.
It's not just for whites'
”.
The NFAC in Louisville.
JEFF DEAN / AFP
This type of armed citizen militias are common in the United States.
“
In the state of Wisconsin alone, they are counted by hundreds,
” emphasizes Cécile Coquet-Mokoko.
This voluntary commitment stems from the misinterpretation of the second amendment to the constitution drafted at the end of the 18th century.
“
The purpose of this text was to be able to organize citizens' militias in states that did not have an army, so that the inhabitants could still protect themselves and take up arms against the Amerindians, for example.
The population, mainly made up of peasants, was not used to handling muskets and the amendment therefore made it possible to control weapons and their owner and to check that everyone knows how to maintain the weapon properly,
”says the history teacher.
But in the "
insurrectionary climate
" which shakes the United States today, the African-Americans members of these militias are seen as "
black criminals by the whites
" who mobilize all the more behind their idol, which does not only feeds and justifies Donald Trump's speech.
"
Especially when Grandmaster Jay said 'burn everything down' during an appearance although he then explained that it was a metaphor,
" said the specialist in African-American issues.
By dissociating itself from the "Black Lives Matter" and by wanting at all costs to confront the militias of white supremacists, the NFAC wants to make its "
version of order
"
reign
.