Making amends: Louisiana governor apologizes to protesters, families of slain students

BATON ROUGE—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.

News, Civil RIghtsKatherine MitchellNovember 17, 2022LSU Manship School News Service, LSU Cold Case Project, Civil rights killing, civil rights cold case, Southern University Killings, Leonard Doug Brown, Denver Smith, shot by police, protests, gas, Big Bertha, tear gas, FBI, polygraph, shotgun, Louisiana Governor

Without an eyewitness, the FBI turned to polygraphs, angle of shot diagrams

At 12:35 p.m. on Nov. 17, 1972, the phone rang in the office of acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray in Washington.

News, Civil RIghtsKatherine MitchellNovember 17, 2022LSU Manship School News Service, LSU Cold Case Project, Civil rights killing, civil rights cold case, Southern University Killings, Leonard Doug Brown, Denver Smith, shot by police, protests, gas, Big Bertha, tear gas, FBI, polygraph, shotgun

As gas clouds cleared, two lay dead. A sister wondered, ‘Why? Why?’

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.