In the fall of 1972 at Southern University in Baton Rouge, students began protesting for better school conditions.
The students formed a group called “Students United,” and created a list of demands including better housing, food and medical services, treatment of pests in dorms, proper equipment for departments and more emphasis on the Black experience in the curriculum.
Students noted that LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge spent $2,325 per student, while Southern spent only $1,327 per student, and that their school was losing faculty to better pay elsewhere.
The students also demanded the resignation of the university president G. Leon Netterville and thought a council system with student representation could bring about further changes in the school.
November 16
Weeks of class boycotts and protests lead the university to call in law enforcement several times and eventually police issued arrest warrants for four of the Students United leaders on November 16, 1972.
Upon learning about the arrests, hundreds of students quickly began gathering in and around the Administration Building on campus to urge President Netterville to release the students from jail.
Instead of negotiating with the students as other universities had done in similar circumstances, the administration again called in law enforcement to disperse the protestors.
Chaos ensued when a state police officer mistook a commander’s comment for an order and threw a tear gas canister toward the students.
Amidst the gas, an unidentified sheriff’s deputy fired a single buckshot that hit two students. Leonard “Douglas” Brown died instantly. Denver Smith died 30 minutes later at the hospital.
When the gas cleared, Netterville and Governor Edwin Edwards were notified and shut down the school for the rest of the semester.
Aftermath
In the following days and weeks, multiple organizations including the FBI, the state attorney general, and a group of prominent Black leaders each launched an investigation into the shooting.
The FBI narrowed the suspect list of law enforcement at Southern that day down to nine East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputies that were standing in front of a palm tree near the Administration Building, only 40 to 50 feet away from the students when they were shot.
The agents then turned to polygraph tests to rule out the remaining suspects, until there were three left
A state grand jury convened in March 1973 and met almost daily for four months to consider the Southern shooting and other cases, however, the panel wrapped up in July 1973 without identifying the shooter.
In 1974, a federal grand jury convened in Baton Rouge, but no indictments were forthcoming.
50 years later, the LSU Cold Case project reviewed over 2,700 FBI files and interviewed dozens of witnesses to retell the story of what happened that day. The students uncovered new information about the FBI investigation into the shooting and the suspects. As a result of the reporting, the names of the deputy suspects were revealed and some of the deputies on the scene that day, including two suspects, were interviewed.
Following the LSU Cold Case series on the shootings, which ran in publications statewide and on media sites, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards apologized on behalf of the state to the victims’ families and the protestors. The governor told the student reporters that he read the stories in the series and learned for the first time the details of the tragedy.
Denver Smith was shot and killed on November 16, 1972. He was from New Roads, Louisiana, and was a computer science major at Southern University. Courtesy of SU Jaguar 1973.Leonard Brown was shot and killed on November 16, 1972. He was from Gilbert, Louisiana, and was a vocational agriculture education major at Southern University. Courtesy of Shunda Wallace.Aerial view of Southern’s campus in 1972. Courtesy of LA State Police. Students United protest leaders left to right: Fred Prejean, Rickey Hill, Sukari Hardnett and Herget Harris. Courtesy of SU Jaguar 1973.Ola Sims Prejean, protestor. Courtesy of Ola Prejean. An estimated 1,000 Southern University students marched or drove to the Louisiana State Capitol on Oct. 24, 1972, to demand changes at the school. A protestor holds a sign that reads “When an institution have destroyed a given mind over a long period of time: it is the duty of that mind to destroy or abolish that institution.”Students at Southern University in New Orleans celebrate the resignation of their president after occupying the administration building for nine days. Courtesy of the Associated Press/Jack Thornell)G. Leon Netterville was the third president of Southern University. Courtesy of The Jaguar 1972.Governor Edwin Edwards stands next to Students United leader Fred Prejean while addressing Southern students. Courtesy of The Jaguar 1973.Rickey Hill, protest leader. Courtesy of Rickey Hill. Sheriff’s deputies and state police deploy in front of the academic building. Courtesy of SU Archives. Denver Smith, mortally wounded, is taken away in an ambulance while Leonard Brown lay covered in the foreground. Courtesy of Associated Press/Hebert Stemley.(top row left to right, bottom row left to right) The sequence shows the moments before the shooting when the first tear gas cans were fired at the students. Courtesy of SU Archives. State Police armored vehicle called “Big Bertha” fired 13 tear gas grenades toward student protestors. Courtesy of LA State Police. Gov. Edwin Edwards conferred with East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Al Amiss (left of Edwards with his helmet visor lifted) and other law-enforcement officials on the Southern campus after the shooting. Courtesy of Louisiana State PoliceA fire broke out hours after the shooting in the registrar’s office. Courtesy of Louisiana State PoliceNational Guardsmen block the entrance to campus the day after the shooting. Courtesy of Associated Press/Jack Thornell.Map of where law enforcement was during the shooting. Image courtesy of Louisiana State Police.Angle of the shot fired. Black dots represent deputies. This photo shows the 1973 grand jury with East Baton Rouge District Attorney Ossie Brown (top row, center). Juror Billy Badeaux is standing next to Brown and is fourth in from the right. Courtesy of Billy Badeaux.J. Stanley Pottinger, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. Courtesy of Stanley Pottinger. Ted Jackson, FBI agent who worked on the Southern investigation. Courtesy of Ted Jackson. Memorial service at Southern University New Orleans days after the shooting in Baton Rouge. Courtesy of Associated Press.Shunda Wallace (left) is Leonard Brown’s daughter, and Evelyn Turner (right) is Leonard Brown’s sister. Courtesy of Shunda Wallace.Plaque for Smith and Brown at Southern University.“Lest We Forget” mural with portraits of Smith and Brown hang in the Smith-Brown Memorial Union at Southern University. Courtesy of Southern University. Smith family with the plaque.The Smith family meets at Southern for an interview about Denver Smith and the protests at Southern in 1972. Mural for Denver Smith by the Denver Smith Foundation. Courtesy of Denver Terrance and Efe Abugo.
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