John Lester Mitchell

Case summary

Incident

John Lester Mitchell served from 1943 to 1946 as a private in the 316th Army Air Forces Base Unit. Records indicate that following his service, Mitchell worked various jobs, including insurance salesman, bricklayer, and trade school teacher. His wife, Mary Ella, was a nurse at a private school. Friends and acquaintances of Mitchell praised his reputation, while the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) regarded him as “an educated man and a leader in local Negro affairs.” Mitchell was also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by the NAACP challenging Black voter disenfranchisement by Opelousas officials.

On the night of November 17, 1951, Mitchell was with his friend Lawrence Shakesnider at the Chicken Shack, a local Black nightclub in Opelousas. Multiple witnesses claimed to have seen Mitchell drinking throughout the evening.

Around 3 a.m. on November 18, Shirley Mae Hamilton, a waitress, heard glasses shatter. According to her statement to investigators, she saw Mitchell and Shakesnider sitting at a table with their heads down. David D. Lanclos, who was working security, identified Mitchell as the source of the commotion and told him to leave. (Lanclos, a farmer by occupation, moonlighted as a “special deputy sheriff,” which permitted him to make arrests and carry a gun, though he did not draw a salary from the sheriff’s department.)

When Mitchell did not move, Lanclos grabbed his arm to escort him out. Witnesses claimed that no scuffle or violence occurred up to this point. Hamilton told investigators that Lanclos shoved Mitchell out the door. Lanclos claimed that Mitchell told him, “Man, you have yourself a fight.” Outside, a “tussle” broke out between Lanclos and Mitchell. Lanclos claimed later he tried to defend himself, pulling his “flapjack” (similar to a blackjack) and hitting Mitchell over the head several times to “try and knock him out so I could take him to jail for having resisted me and for fighting me.” Lanclos told FBI agents he had notified Mitchell several times he was under arrest and told him to surrender. However, King Black, Jr., a musician at the Chicken Shack who witnessed the struggle, said he did not hear Lanclos inform Mitchell he was under arrest. Black saw Lanclos point his gun at Mitchell and heard Lanclos say, “Go on home; I don’t want to shoot you,” to which Mitchell replied, “Go ahead on and shoot, then.” According to Black, Lanclos said, “OK, you asked for it, here it is,” and shot Mitchell in the chest with his .38 revolver.

Lanclos told investigators that immediately after the shooting, Black attempted to go back inside the dance hall and stated: “Aw, no, Mr. Lanclos, I don’t know a thing.” Lanclos responded, “Oh, yes, you do, Black, you saw what happened.”

After hearing the shot, several people inside the Chicken Shack rushed outside and saw Lanclos holding a gun in his right hand while standing over Mitchell’s body. Witnesses also heard Lanclos say something to the effect of “He made me do it” or “I had to do it.” Bystander Howard Jolivette offered to take Mitchell to the hospital but Lanclos wouldn’t let him, saying he wanted to wait until authorities arrived. Lanclos said Mitchell appeared to already be dead.

Several of Mitchell’s friends drove to his house nearby to inform his wife, Mary Ella, about the shooting and to bring her to the scene. About twenty minutes passed between the shooting and Mary Ella’s arrival at the scene, where she saw her husband lying on the ground. Lanclos still would not permit anyone, including Mary Ella, to take Mitchell to the hospital. However, several minutes later, Lanclos told FBI investigators, he saw that Mitchell’s “heart was still beating some” and finally drove him in his car to the St. Landry Clinic. Authorities had not arrived at the scene.

At the clinic, Dr. W.K. Briley examined Mitchell around 4 a.m. and declared him dead. Mitchell’s widow was treated for shock. The Parish coroner, Dr. Gerald Bertinor, examined Mitchell’s body around 6 a.m. and concluded that Mitchell died from a bullet to the heart.

Aftermath

At the inquest, Lanclos testified that after struggling with Mitchell for 10 to 15 minutes, he was out of breath and worried that the man would seize his gun. When Mitchell “kept on coming at me,” Lanclos testified, he shot Mitchell, intending not to kill him, but “only to stop him.” Lanclos said that Mitchell “may have been drinking but he wasn’t drunk.” He said he could not get anyone to assist him in taking Mitchell to the clinic.

On November 21, 1951, an all-white coroner’s jury determined Mitchell’s death to be a “justifiable homicide.” No other state action was taken beyond the coroner’s inquest.

The incident became national news, drawing comparison to the killing by police earlier that month of Samuel Shepherd in Groveland, Florida. Numerous NAACP chapters and Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP’s special counsel, coordinated the submission of letters and telegrams to the Department of Justice (DOJ) insisting the cases be investigated. These requests claimed Mitchell had been shot because just two weeks earlier he, along with two co-plaintiffs, filed a federal lawsuit against the Opelousas registrar, George C. Blanchard. Blanchard, the plaintiffs claimed, had blocked their attempts to register to vote on account of their race. The first hearing in the federal case had been scheduled for November 29, 1951 – 11 days after Mitchell was shot.

Federal authorities debated the merits of the case and whether Mitchell’s shooting was part of a campaign of voter intimidation. A year earlier, on June 5, 1950, eight Black men were beaten by a group of white men when they entered the Registrar’s Office in Opelousas to inquire about registering. Joseph Joubert, one of Mitchell’s co-plaintiffs, was one of the victims.

The DOJ investigation focused on the issue of intent – whether Lanclos’ shooting of Mitchell was premeditated or racially motivated. The DOJ ultimately concluded that even if he was indicted for excessive force, no federal jury would convict him. Based on these recommendations, the DOJ closed the file in 1952 due to the time, expense, and possible public criticism of the DOJ for furthering “hopeless cases.”

In a May 1, 1952 letter to the acting attorney general, B.J. Stanley, president of the Baton Rouge NAACP chapter, wrote that “Lester Mitchell’s memory is sacred to us, and we don’t think he got justice.” The suit against the registrar continued without Mitchell. Black residents of St. Landry Parish were finally allowed to register to vote in October 1952. Gertie Lawson, Laura Cummings, and Rev. Ernest Toussant became the first Black registered voters in the Parish since the Reconstruction era. On November 4, 1952, the group cast their first votes for the presidential election. Lawson stated after casting her vote: “I hope this means all of us folks will be able to register.”

In April 1989, Governor Charles “Buddy” Roemer recognized Mitchell by conferring a posthumous Governor’s Award acknowledging him as “Being a founder, nurturer and sustainer of the St. Landry Chapter of the NAACP.”

Mitchell was buried at Little Zion cemetery in Opelousas. Lanclos died on March 3, 1975. Mary Ella Mitchell died in 2010.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled from information contained in different sources, including, but not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

World War II Draft Registration Card, 1940

1920 U.S. Federal Census

1930 U.S. Federal Census

1940 U.S. Federal Census

1950 U.S. Federal Census

Certificate of Death of John Lester Mitchell, State of Louisiana, 1951

“La. Jurists Clear Deputy,” The Afro-American, December 1, 1951

“Files Registration Suit Against Registrar in Louisiana,” The Call, November 16, 1951

“2 ‘Lynch’ Sheriffs  Defy U.S.,” The Chicago Defender, December 1, 1951

“Opelousas Vote Fight Suffers Court Setback,” The Chicago Defender, December 8, 1951

“Killing of Man May Be Dixie Plot,” The New York Amsterdam News, November 24, 1951

“Killed After Seeking Ballot,” The New Journal and Guide, December 1, 1951

“Negros Sue Registrar,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 7, 1951

“Legal Notice,” The Daily World (Opelousas), October 19, 1951

“Local Negroes Try to Register, But Door Locked,” The Daily World (Opelousas), October 19, 1951

“Legal Notice,” The Daily World (Opelousas), October 21, 1951

“Legal Notice,” The Daily World (Opelousas), October 25, 1951

“Deputies, Negros in Killing, Beating,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 20, 1951

“Negro Killing Ruled Justifiable Homicide,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 23, 1951

“Suit Against Registrar Due for Hearing Here Thursday,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 27, 1951

“Negro Suit Rejected,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 29, 1951

“Registrar Sued by Negroes,” The Daily World (Opelousas), December 30, 1951

“Negroes Register Democrat Here, First Since Civil War,” The Daily World (Opelousas), October 5, 1952

“First Negro Votes,” The Daily World (Opelousas), November 4, 1952

“Trial of Negro Suit Against Registrar Continued Here,” The Daily World (Opelousas), January 21, 1953

“Millspaugh’s Voting Rights Act of 1951,” The Daily World (Opelousas), June 1, 2008

“Trio Alleges Violation of Civil Rights,” The Shreveport Times, November 7, 1951

“Opelousas Man Killed by Deputy,” The Times-Picayune, November 19, 1951

“Legal Move for Negroes is Rejected,” The News-Star, November 30, 1951

“Ballot Suit is Entered in Louisiana,” The Philadelphia Tribune, November 20, 1951

“La. Parish Terror Mounting in Fury,” The Philadelphia Tribune, November 27, 1951

“Probe of Shooting of La. Vote Suit Figure is Asked,” The Philadelphia Tribune, November 27, 1951

NAACP Legal Defense And Educational Fund records