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Gov. Edwards issues state apology for fatal 1972 shootings at Southern University
By Drew Hawkins and Claire Sullivan Gov. John Bel Edwards apologized Wednesday on behalf of the state to former Southern University protest leaders and the families of two Southern students who were killed by an unidentified sheriff’s deputy 50 years ago. “To the extent that the state of Louisiana can try to make this right, […]
Pain, lessons remain decades after Southern shooting
By Claire Sullivan, Brittany Dunn, Shelly Kleinpeter and Allison Allsop Last of a four-part series (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) 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 University’s campus in November 1972. Fifty years later, […]
After 1972 Southern shootings, deputies deny knowing who fired fatal shots
Third story in a four-part series By Drew Hawkins, Adrian Dubose, Allison Allsop and Alex Tirado 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 Attorney General Ralph Erickson, calling to order an investigation into the shooting of the […]
What led to the 1972 shooting death of two Southern University students during a protest
Second in a four-part series By Drew Hawkins, Adrian Dubose, Maria Pham and Annalise Vidrine 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 deputies outside their apartment. Hill had been arrested the week before for disrupting the campus. […]
50 years later, justice still absent for two deaths during Southern campus protest
By Claire Sullivan, Brittany Dunn, Shelly Kleinpeter and Annalise Vidrine 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 brother stayed away and warned her to be careful. The pair had grown up with 10 other siblings in a […]
‘Frontline’ revisits Louisiana editor’s work on Ku Klux Klan murder case
The work of a longtime Louisiana newspaper editor will be included in a PBS "Frontline" documentary Tuesday on the 1967 Ku Klux Klan murder of Wharlest Jackson, a 37-year-old Black man in Natchez, Mississippi.
Stern testimony from teens over redistricting triggers Louisiana lawmakers
Sparks flew between lawmakers and high school students at a House redistricting committee hearing Wednesday.