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Gov. John Bel Edwards apologizes to families of two Southern students gunned down during 1972 protest
BATON ROUGE — Gov. John Bel Edwards apologized Wednesday (Nov. 16) on behalf of the state to former Southern University protest leaders and the families of two Southern students who…
Pain, lessons remain decades after Southern shooting
Last in a four-part series Shunda Wallace was 3 months old when her father, Leonard Brown, and another student, Denver Smith, were shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy on Southern…
Without an eyewitness, the FBI turned to polygraphs, angle of shot diagrams
Third in a four-part series At 12:35 p.m. on Nov. 17, 1972, the phone rang in the office of acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray in Washington. It was Deputy…
As gas clouds cleared, two lay dead. A sister wondered, ‘Why? Why?’
Second in a four-part series The knock on the door came at 4 a.m. Rickey Hill and Herget Harris, two protest leaders at Southern University, peeked out and saw sheriff’s…
Half century later, question remains: What deputy killed two students?
First in a four-part series Josephine and Denver Smith took different approaches to protests at Southern University in the fall of 1972. Josephine skipped class for meetings, while her older…
A man the FBI thought was dead recalls details of 1960 murders
Not a day has passed during the past 62 years that Willie Gibson hasn’t thought of Louisiana and the horrific shootings in Monroe that left four of his friends and…
Deacons For Defense
Deacons for Defense & Justice The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an organization of Black men formed in Louisiana during the Civil Rights-era to protect Black people and neighborhoods,…
Robert Fuller
Robert ‘Shotgun’ Fuller: The 1960 Murder of Albert Pitts Jr., David Lee Pitts, Earnest McFarland and Alfred ‘Monk’ Marshall and Wounding of Charlie Willis In Monroe, Louisiana, in 1960, Zennie…
Shooting at Southern University
Victims: Denver Smith and Leonard “Douglas” Brown Background In the fall of 1972 at Southern University in Baton Rouge, students began protesting for better school conditions. The students formed a…
Murder of Frank Morris
Frank Morris was 51 years old when Klansmen torched his shoe shop in Ferriday, LA, on December 10, 1964. He had been sleeping in a back room when he was…
Growing Up in Klan Family: Earcel Boyd
Earcel Boyd was a member of the Silver Dollar Group and a statewide officer in the Louisiana Realm of the United Klans of America. Two of his sons, Sonny and…
