Lucius Amerson and Deputies Sworn In

Lucius Amerson, at left in the white shirt, is sworn in as sheriff of Macon County in January 1967. In June 1966, Amerson was the first African American elected sheriff in Alabama since Reconstruction, and according to some accounts, the first in the South. The passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 strengthened voting rights and brought into Alabama and other southern states federal officials to oversee voting procedures. With him in the photograph are his African American deputies Eddie M. Ivory and Joseph Merriwether, his white deputy Arthur L. Knowles, and Probate Judge Preston Hornsby administering the oath of office.

Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection