Lamar Smith

People

Lamar Smith

Outcome

unknown

On August 13, 1955, Lamar "Ditney" Smith, a 63-year-old Black farmer, World War I veteran, and voter registration activist, was shot and killed in broad daylight on the courthouse lawn in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Smith had been helping Black citizens in Lincoln County vote through absentee ballots, a legal strategy that allowed them to avoid the physical intimidation and violence they faced at polling places. He was shot by Noah Smith, a white farmer, as he approached the courthouse carrying absentee ballots for an upcoming runoff election. Between 30 and 75 witnesses were present, including the local sheriff, who saw a blood-splattered Noah Smith walk away from the scene but did not make an arrest. Smith's voter registration work had made him a target. He was a member of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and had been organizing Black voters in a county supervisor's race, encouraging them to use the absentee ballot process. His activism came at a time when Mississippi's Democratic Party chairman had openly declared that Black people would not be allowed to vote in the August primary and warned of physical punishment for those who tried. Black voter registration in Mississippi had plummeted from 22,000 in 1954 to 12,000 in 1955 due to new restrictive legislation, and 14 of the state's 82 counties had zero registered Black voters. Despite the number of eyewitnesses, the justice system failed completely. Three white men (Noah Smith, Mack Eugene Smith, and Charles Denver Falvey) were arrested but released on bond. When an all-white grand jury convened in September 1955, every witness claimed they had not seen any crime take place. No indictments were returned. A second grand jury in January 1956 also produced no indictments. None of the three accused men ever stood trial. Lamar Smith's murder was part of a wave of racial terror in Mississippi in 1955 that also claimed the lives of Reverend George W. Lee in May and 14-year-old Emmett Till just fifteen days after Smith's killing. The NAACP documented all three murders in a pamphlet titled "M is for Mississippi and Murder." Smith's name is inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. A historical marker was erected at the Brookhaven courthouse complex in 2023, and in December 2025, Lincoln County supervisors unanimously approved dedicating a section of Highway 550 in his name.