On January 10, 1972, a confrontation between police and Nation of Islam demonstrators on North Boulevard left five dead and 31 wounded, triggering a National Guard deployment and a decade-long legal battle that ended with reversed convictions.
North Boulevard (near Prince Hall Masonic Temple, between 19th and 20th Streets), Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public street; no admission. Drive-by or on-foot visit only.
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Wheelchair OK
Urban sidewalk and street.
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Photos OK
January 10, 1972 confrontation between Baton Rouge police and Nation of Islam demonstrators left 5 dead and 31 wounded · Governor McKeithen deployed 700 National Guard troops; citywide curfew imposed · Nine Black men convicted in 1976 trial with later reversal by Louisiana Supreme Court · One of Louisiana's most significant civil rights-era incidents of law enforcement violence
The events of January 10, 1972 on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge unfolded during a period of heightened racial tension in Louisiana. Nation of Islam members had gathered in the neighborhood when a confrontation with East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies escalated into gunfire. By the time the shooting stopped, two deputy sheriffs — William Glover and Carlin Soulier — and three Nation of Islam members were dead; 31 others were wounded. The circumstances of who fired first and under what provocation were disputed from the outset.
Governor John McKeithen responded within hours, deploying approximately 700 National Guard troops to Baton Rouge and declaring a curfew covering the city. The scale of the response reflected the political volatility of the moment: the early 1970s saw similar confrontations between law enforcement and Black political organizations in cities across the United States, and Louisiana officials were acutely aware of the national attention such incidents drew.
In 1976, nine Black men were convicted of charges related to the deaths of the two deputies. The prosecutions were controversial from the beginning, with defense attorneys and civil rights observers arguing that the trial was compromised by racially biased jury selection and that exculpatory evidence had been suppressed. The Louisiana Supreme Court ultimately reversed the convictions, though the case received limited mainstream press attention compared to similar wrongful-conviction cases of the era.
No formal memorial or historical marker identifies the shooting site on North Boulevard today. The Prince Hall Masonic Temple, near which the confrontation took place, remains a landmark in the neighborhood. The 1972 shooting is included in regional assessments of Baton Rouge's most significant true-crime and civil rights history.
Sources
The 1972 North Boulevard shooting site does not appear in paranormal indexes or ghost tour literature. What draws dark-tourism visitors is the site's status as an unmarked, uncommercialized, unacknowledged location of significant violence and subsequent injustice.
The pattern of the case — a deadly incident, a racially charged prosecution, reversed convictions, and near-total public amnesia — is familiar from other civil rights-era cases across the South. What distinguishes the Baton Rouge shooting is the density of what happened: five people died, more than thirty were wounded, and the National Guard occupied a major city. Yet no memorial marks the block.
Visitors researching Louisiana civil rights history find the shooting through Wikipedia, regional true-crime journalism, and academic civil rights scholarship. The absence of any physical acknowledgment at the site is itself a point of interest for dark-tourism visitors focused on the politics of memory and commemoration.
North Boulevard in this block is the site of the January 10, 1972 confrontation. No formal memorial marks the exact spot; visitors come with knowledge of the historical record to bear witness to a largely unacknowledged chapter of Louisiana civil rights history.
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