Louis Berry (October 9, 1914 – May 3, 1998) was the first African American permitted to practice law in his native formerly segregated city of Alexandria in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana.
[3] Berry filled the role as the only black lawyer in Alexandria much as Jesse N. Stone, later the president of the Southern University System in Baton Rouge, had done in Shreveport.
[4] Berry worked with black ministers in Rapides Parish to register African-American citizens under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Passage of the law, signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, led to a large increase in black voter participation in Alexandria.
The newspaper quoted Berry as having said: "Young people will be surprised to know the conditions under which blacks had to exist at the time, for they really had no rights that anybody was bound to respect.