Was Louis Allen Murdered By A Corrupt Sheriff?

Louis Allen

He was born April 15th, 1919 in Amite County, Mississippi. He had a seventh grade education. Allen served in the United States Army during World War II; he enlisted at age 23 in the service at Camp Shelby, Mississippi on January 12th, 1943. After his return to Mississippi, he worked as a logger and farm laborer. 

Allen and his wife Elizabeth had four children together, including a daughter and a son named Henry (called Hank). He built up his own logging business in Liberty, which was doing well enough also to buy his own land, where he and his family raised produce and cattle.

It was said that the Ku Klux Klan had a strong grasp on the town of Liberty. Around this time in the United States, wasn't the greatest in racial equality either. African-Americans were politically disfranchised by the Mississippi's constitution of 1890. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were used to raise barriers to voter registration and exclude blacks from voting. 

In the early 1960's, a local chapter of the NAACP was founded by E.W. Steptoe for the purpose of registering black voters. He was soon joined by Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

In August 1961, Moses filed charges against Billy Jack Caston, cousin to Sheriff Daniel Jones and son-in-law of pro-segregation state legislator E.H. Hurst, for an assault against him and other civil rights activists by a white mob. It was the first time that an African-American had legally challenged white violence in Amite County. The all-white jury acquitted Caston, and Moses was escorted to the county line, ostensibly for his own safety. Moses left the county in January 1962. Steptoe consulted with Justice Department agents in Jackson about intimidation tactics used by Hurst and other prominent whites in the town of Liberty.

Allen did not attempt to register to vote or become involved in the Movement until what he witnessed on September 25th, 1961. Allen watched as Hurst and Lee had a limited verbal exchange the Westbrook Cotton Gin. Lee, who stood with empty hands and an unlit cigarette in his mouth, was then shot and killed by Hurst.

Allen was then pressured by local law enforcement officials to lie about what had happened. He testified that he had seen Lee holding a tire iron with the intention of hitting Representative Hurst. A piece of iron was “found” under Lee’s body by the same authorities that had coerced Allen. The coroner’s jury exonerated Hurst the next day.

Later, Allen had been uncomfortable about his untruth and told fellow activists the real story behind Lee's killing.

“I did not want to tell no story about the dead, because you can’t ask the dead for forgiveness,” Allen told Bob Moses.

Allen also discussed the incident with Julian Bond, who encouraged him to tell his story to the FBI. 

After learning that a federal jury was to consider charges against Hurst, Allen talked to the FBI and the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Jackson, asking for protection if he testified. However, the Justice Department said it could not give him protection causing Allen to stick with the lie he had originally told.

Even though Allen ended up not cooperating, it was already too late, word had spread throughout Liberty about what he had tried to do. Whites stopped patronizing Allen’s business and cut off his credit. Deputy sheriff Daniel Jones, whose father was a Ku Klux Klan leader, began repeatedly arresting Allen on trumped up charges such as trespassing or writing bad checks. In one instance with Jones,  Jones struck Allen's face with a flashlight, breaking his jaw. 

 No black men had been allowed to vote in Amite County since 1890. In August 1962, as Allen and two other black men tried to register to vote at Amite County Courthouse, they were shot at by an unknown assailant. 

Following this incident, a white businessman threatened Allen, saying, "Louis, the best thing you can do is leave. Your little family, they're innocent people, and your house could get burned down. All of you could get killed."

Allen reported the death threats to the FBI, but they had limited jurisdiction over civil right at the time.

Leo McKnight was a friend of Allen's and had worked with him and twice tried to register to vote with him. In February 1963, McKnight and his family died in a suspicious fire that local blacks believed was a murder.

Allen wanted to leave town, but he had a sick mother to care for. After his mother passed away in January of 1964, he made plans to leave. On the 31st, the night before his planned departure, He was killed by two shotgun blasts to the head. Allen’s teenage son found his father’s dead body lying in the driveway. The entire left side of his face had been blown off. Deputy Jones, the same man who had threatened Allen’s life on numerous occasions, was made the lead investigator of the case. 

In 2011, Hank said, "He [Sheriff Daniel Jones] told my mom that if Louis had just shut his mouth, that he wouldn't be layin' there on the ground. He wouldn't be dead."

There was no real investigation into Allen's murder until 1994, when Plater Robinson, a history professor at Tulane University, began examining the case files. Robinson's research in the following years pointed to Jones as a likely suspect in the killing. In 1998, Robinson conducted a tape-recorded interview with Alfred Knox, an elderly black preacher in Liberty, who reported that Jones had recruited his son-in-law, Archie Weatherspoon, to "kill Louis Allen". When Weatherspoon refused to pull the trigger, Jones allegedly killed Allen himself. Both Knox and Weatherspoon have since died.

In 2007, the FBI reopened Allen's case. Its staff identified Jones as the prime suspect. As of 2011, the FBI has been unable to collect enough evidence to prosecute. 

Officially, Allen's murder remains unsolved today.