Lamar Smith

On the morning of August 13, 1955, Lamar Smith, an African-American World War I veteran active in voter registration drives, was shot and killed outside the Brookhaven, Mississippi, courthouse. The victim had worked on the campaign of a man running against the incumbent in a county supervisor race. The run-off election for the supervisor was to take place days after the shooting. Three white men, Noah Smith, Mack Smith, and Charles Falvey, were arrested for the shooting. According to an August 17, 1955 Daily Worker article, a state Coroner’s Jury heard testimony for four hours on the night of August 16 and then ruled that the victim had died as a result “of a gunshot wound in an altercation with Noah Smith, Mack Smith and Charles Falvey and probably other parties unknown.