Smith--COFO, Moss Point, 1964 (Benjamin E. Smith papers, 1955-1967; Archives Main Stacks, Mss 513, Box 1, Folder 17)

@ Wisconsin Historical Society

Smith, Benjamin Eugene

Description

This small folder contains legal documents and handwritten notes relating to a July 6, 1964, shooting incident at a voter registration rally at which a young black woman was injured by white assailants. Nevertheless, three black men were arrested and at least one was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. They were represented by Jack Peebles, a New Orleans attorney. Peebles' expense list indicates that northern churches were helping to pay his fees and that his car was vandalized while he was in Moss Point. Affidavits about the shooting incident reveal that some in the African American community carried weapons for self-defense, especially when driving between towns at night.

Type:

Text

Format:

Legal Documents

Rights:

Copyright to these documents belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. The principal organizations have been defunct for many years and copyright to their unpublished records is uncertain. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. We have attempted to contact individuals who created personal papers of significant length or importance. Nearly all have generously permitted us to include their work. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited.