Louis Allen, born on this day in 1919, was a black businessman in Liberty, Mississippi who was shot and killed on his own land after witnessing a white Mississippi state legislator murder Herbert Lee, a civil rights activist.

Lee had also previously tried to register to vote and talked to federal officials after witnessing the 1961 murder of Lee, although, fearing for his life, repeated the false, "official" version of events which exonerated the legislator.

Allen had watched as E.H. Hurst assassinated Lee with a single gunshot to the head in broad daylight, and was forced by local police to falsely testify in court that Hurst acted in self-defense (Hurst claimed Lee attacked him a tire iron).

After given this coerced testimony, Allen then talked to the FBI and the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Jackson, asking for protection if he testified about his forced testimony. The Justice Department said they could not offer him protection, and so Allen declined to speak out.

Despite this, on the day before Allen planned to move out of state, he was assassinated on his own property. In 2011, the CBS program "60 Minutes" conducted a special on his murder which suggested that Allen was killed by Amite County Sheriff Daniel Jones. No one has been prosecuted for his murder.