- In 1951, NAACP chapter founder John Lester Mitchell was shot and killed after filing a federal voting rights lawsuit in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.
- A special sheriff’s deputy, who claimed self-defense, was not charged in the killing, prompting an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Federal investigators could not link the shooting to Mitchell’s lawsuit but debated charging the deputy with violating Mitchell’s civil rights by using excessive force.
- The case was ultimately closed due to the high legal standard of proving “willful” intent, a challenge that persists in modern police misconduct cases.
This is the second of a two-part series.
No African American had succeeded in registering to vote in St. Landry Parish in decades, as local officials across the South placed hurdles like poll taxes and literacy tests in front of Black men or simply rejected their applications.
Just 16 months earlier, five Black men in the parish had been beaten badly while attempting to register…