Historical Marker
Murder of Lamar Smith
Brookhaven, Lincoln County · Mississippi
Erected 2023
On August 13, 1955, Lamar Smith, a 63-year-old farmer and World War I veteran, was at the Lincoln County courthouse helping Black neighbors fill out absentee ballots so they could vote in the August 23 runoff without facing the polls. Around 10 a.m. he was shot dead on the courthouse lawn. Reports counted at least 30 white witnesses, the sheriff among them, but none would testify, and the three men arrested went free. Smith belonged to the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and was a friend of its president, T. R. M. Howard of Mound Bayou.
Where it stands
31.57645, -90.44156 · Directions
More markers nearby
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