The Robert "Bob" Hicks House served as a base of operations for the Bogalusa Civil Rights Movement. It was a safe place for civil rights workers and an emergency medical triage station. The breakfast room became the communications center for the Bogalusa Chapter of the Deacons of Defense and Justice, an armed self-defense group who protected civil rights workers from violence. Officers of the Bogalusa Civic and Voters League and the local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) met at the house regularly. The living room was an unofficial office for civil rights attorneys who pioneered groundbreaking lawsuits in education, housing and employment.