Lamar Smith (activist)
Encyclopedia
Lamar Smith was a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 figure, black farmer, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 veteran and an organizer of black voter registration. He was shot to death in broad daylight at close range on the lawn of the Lincoln County courthouse in Brookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven is a small city in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 9,861 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lincoln County...

. Some contemporary reports say there were many white witnesses, including the local sheriff, who saw a white man covered with blood leaving the scene. No witnesses would come forward and the three men who had been arrested went free.

Smith apparently had attended meetings of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership
Regional Council of Negro Leadership
The Regional Council of Negro Leadership was a society in Mississippi founded by T. R. M. Howard in 1951 to promote a program of civil rights, self-help, and business ownership...

 (RCNL), probably the largest civil rights organization in the state. He was also a personal friend of the RCNL's president, Dr. T.R.M. Howard of Mound Bayou, Mississippi
Mound Bayou, Mississippi
Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi. The population was 2,102 at the 2000 census. It is notable for having been founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves led by Isaiah Montgomery. By percentage, its 98.4 percent African-American majority population is one...

.
Smith's murder was one of several racially motivated attacks in Mississippi during 1955. The other incidents included the murder of George W. Lee
George W. Lee
George W. Lee was an African American civil rights leader, minister, and entrepreneur. He was a vice president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and head of the Belzoni, Mississippi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...

, a civil rights leader in Belzoni (May), the killing of Emmett Till
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...

, a black teenager visiting from Chicago (August), and the shooting of Gus Courts (December), a civil rights associate of Lee in Belzoni. The Smith case was cited in the NAACP's pamphlet M is for Murder and Mississippi.
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