Lamar Smith, August 13, 1955

Lamar Smith, a farmer and World War I veteran, was active in registering African-Americans to vote when he was shot to death in broad daylight at close range on the lawn of the Lincoln County courthouse in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Despite many 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.