Witness to the Truth: My Struggle for Human Rights in Louisiana

This is the inspirational saga of one man’s fight to enfranchise his community.
Witness to the Truth
tells the extraordinary life story of a grassroots human rights leader and his courageous campaign to win the right to vote for the African Americans of Lake Providence, Louisiana. Born in 1901 in a small, mostly black parish, John H. Scott grew up in a community where black businesses, schools, and neighborhoods thrived in isolation, yet African Americans were still being denied a voice in local and national politics. Scott, a minister and farmer, sought to redress this inequality. Ultimately convincing Attorney General Robert Kennedy to participate in his crusade, Scott led a twenty-five year struggle that illustrates how persistent efforts by local citizens translated into a national movement. Cleo Scott Brown, Scott’s daughter, draws on oral history interviews with her father conducted by historian Joseph Logsdon as well as personal papers, court transcripts, records of the East Carroll chapter of the NAACP, interviews with other East Carroll residents, family recollections, and her own conversations with her father as the basis for this narrative.