Lamar Smith
Age 62
A World War I veteran who helped fellow Black people vote
Brookhaven, Mississippi
August 13, 1955
On August 13, 1955, Lamar Smith — a Black farmer, World War I veteran and voting rights champion — was shot and killed outside a courthouse in Brookhaven, Mississippi, before dozens of witnesses. Bystanders included the local sheriff, who made no immediate arrests, according to a 1955 NAACP pamphlet.
Smith was a voting rights activist affiliated with the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and active in the campaign of a man running against an incumbent county supervisor. The morning Smith died, days before the election, the 62-year-old had visited the local courthouse to help Black voters use absentee ballots, so they might avoid violence at the polls. Two weeks earlier, Smith had also voted in a primary. He reportedly received threats for his civil rights work.
Initial Investigation
Three white men were arrested for the shooting: Noah Smith, Mack Smith and Charles Falvey. A state coroner’s jury concluded Smith had died of a gunshot wound in an altercation with the men “and probably other parties unknown,” the Daily Worker newspaper reported in 1955.
A state grand jury convened in September 1955 and heard from as many as 75 witnesses, all of whom denied seeing anything, according to media reports at the time. The grand jury adjourned without taking action. The following year, a new district attorney called another grand jury and subpoenaed several witnesses, but these proceedings also failed to produce an indictment.
The FBI monitored the 1950s state investigation and said that a member of the Brookhaven Police Department and another witness told them that the three white men accused of killing Smith had supported the incumbent county supervisor — whom Smith opposed — and that the men had argued with Smith before shooting him, according to a Department of Justice memo about the case.
Till Act Status
The FBI opened a review of the case in 2008, pulling the old FBI file from the National Archives, as well as contacting Mississippi law enforcement and other groups that might have information about the murder, such as the NAACP. No state or local law enforcement offices had maintained records pertaining to the murder, according to the DOJ memo.
Also according to the memo, the FBI interviewed one person as part of its review. That interview revealed that Smith may have been ambushed. The interviewee said that, one day before the shooting, three white men had taken whiskey to someone who knew Smith and who was “instrumental in convincing the victim to go to the Brookhaven courthouse on the day he was shot,” according to the DOJ memo.
All three suspects died before the FBI initiated its review, and the “parties unknown” from the 1955 state coroner’s ruling were never identified. As such, the DOJ closed the case in 2010.
Case Status closed
Closed 04/12/2010
Themes
- Closed All Subjects Deceased
- Closed Cases
- Men
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)