Southern commemorates the deaths of Denver Smith, Leonard Brown

A wreath and uniformed guard mark the memorial to Denver Smith and Leonard Brown, SU students killed 35 years ago at a non-violent protest on the Baton Rouge campus.

Several hundred Southern University students, faculty and administrators today commemorated the deaths of two students killed during a nonviolent protest on the Baton Rouge campus 35 years ago.

Denver Smith and Leonard Brown were killed on the morning of Nov. 16, 1972 as law enforcement officers fired on the unarmed students. No one has ever been arrested for the killings.

“We want to make sure that these students’ lives and what they mean to Southern University is not forgotten,” said Mia Crawford, a student at Southern and the event organizer.

Members of both the Brown and Smith families attended the program held in the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union, a building named in honor of the slain students. The families also helped lay a ceremonial wreath in front of the union.

Dr. Raymond Lockett, chairman of Southern’s Department of History, gave a historical perspective of the 1972 student protest. He told the audience that the student protesters wanted more state funding for the school, the renovation and construction of buildings and changes in the curriculum on the campus.

Interim Chancellor Margaret Ambrose told the audience, “These were serious students who cared about the university and who went to class.” Ambrose, an English teacher at Southern in 1972, implored the students to honor the legacies of Smith, Brown and the protesters by being “just as serious” about their classes.

Crawford said she cried while researching the events leading up to the protest and the shooting. “I believed in so many of the things they wanted. Every time I read their demands I cried.”