Summary Information
Benjamin E. Smith Papers 1955-1967
- Smith, Benjamin E., 1927?-1976
Mss 513; PH Mss 513
3.4 c.f. (1 archives box, 3 record center cartons) and 11 photographs (1 folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Correspondence and legal papers of Benjamin E. Smith, a prominent Southern civil rights lawyer, chiefly pertaining to his involvement with the Mississippi Freedom Summer activities of the Council of Federated Organizations. Photographs include images of civil rights protesters at a Woolworth's store in Meridian and in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 1962. English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00513
Biography/History
Following his death at only age 48, Benjamin E. Smith was honored by the ACLU as one of the outstanding Southern libertarians, “a crusading civil rights lawyer in the Deep South when accepting civil rights cases was not a fashionable thing for a lawyer to undertake.”
Smith was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, and educated at Rice University and Tulane University Law School. After teaching for a time at Temple University, he moved to New Orleans where he earned a reputation for his work in civil rights, constitutional, and labor law. During the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 Smith's firm, Smith, Waltzer, Jones, and Peebles, joined with the firm of Kunstler, Kunstler, and Kinoy to form a legal support group for the Council of Federated Organizations, and during subsequent months Smith and his partners devoted over half their time to civil rights cases.
Smith's activities and offices in behalf of civil rights and civil liberties during the 1950's and 1960's were numerous: vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild; treasurer and member of the board of the South Conference Educational Fund; vice-president of the Center for Constitutional Rights; and member of the board of the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corp.
In 1967 the NLG honored him with the FDR award as the outstanding lawyer of the year. Smith's political activities included a term (1958-1960) as assistant district attorney of Orleans Parish and an unsuccessful run for the House of Representatives in 1970.
He died February 6, 1976.
Scope and Content Note
The papers consist largely of correspondence and legal documents arranged alphabetically by case. The majority of the cases arose from the involvement of Smith and his partners Bruce Waltzer and Jack Peebles in the legal defense of Mississippi civil rights activists in 1964 and 1965, but a few of the files touch on the firm's representation of the United Packinghouse, Food, and Allied Workers Union. Although a number of these cases were quite significant (Cameron v. Johnson and Peacock v. Greenwood reached the Supreme Court), the correspondence tends to be largely professional in nature. The chief exception to this may be found in the more personal references in the COFO correspondence files.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Benjamin E. Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1966-1973. Accession Number: M66-306, M67-85, M73-149
Processed by John Wright and Carolyn Mattern, December 1979.
Contents List
Mss 513
Box
1
Folder
1
|
ACLU, Louisiana Chapter, Psychiatric Advisory Committee, 1963
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
Avedon, Richard, 1964
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
Bass, John D. and Harold H. Royal v. Horace Lee, et al., 1962-1965
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
Broom, Essie Lee, 1964
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|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
Brown, Addie Sue, et al., v. Meridian, 1964-1965
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|
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Calhoun, Frank, et al., v. Meridian
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|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
Correspondence, 1964-1966
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7-8
|
Legal documents, 1963-1966
|
|
|
Cameron, John Earl, et al., v. Paul Johnson, et al.
|
|
Box
1
Folder
9
|
Correspondence, 1964-1969
|
|
Box
1
Folder
10-12
|
Legal documents, 1963-1968
|
|
|
Clark, Edwin, v. Tulane University, 1962
|
|
Box
1
Folder
13
|
COFO
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14-15
|
Correspondence, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
1
Folder
16
|
Legal documents, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
1
Folder
17
|
COFO-Moss Point, 1964
|
|
Box
1
Folder
18
|
COFO v. Rainey, 1964
|
|
Box
1
Folder
19
|
Collins, John, et al., v. Jackson, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
1
Folder
20
|
Trapp, et al., v. Mississippi, 1965
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1-4
|
Colonial Sugars Co. v. Arthur Arceneaux, et al., 1955
|
|
Box
2
Folder
5
|
Connor, Peggy, et al., v. Johnson, et al., 1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
6
|
Cox, Judge Harold M., 1964
|
|
Box
2
Folder
7
|
Crawford, Rupert, et al., v. Mississippi, 1964-1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
8
|
Gray, Victoria, et al., v. Paul Johnson, 1964-1966
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|
|
Hattiesburg v. Lefton, et al.
|
|
Box
2
Folder
9
|
Correspondence, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
2
Folder
10
|
Legal documents, 1964-1965
|
|
|
Hattiesburg v. Ministers
|
|
Box
2
Folder
11
|
Correspondence, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
2
Folder
12
|
Legal documents, 1964
|
|
Box
2
Folder
13
|
Indianola v. Kaminsky et al., 1965
|
|
Box
2
Folder
14
|
Jones, James, v. Jackson County, Mississippi, Tribblits and Wright, 1964
|
|
Box
2
Folder
15
|
Louisiana v. Joan Trumpauer, 1962
|
|
Box
2
Folder
16
|
Lowery, David, v. Constant, Chetelain & Oster, 1964-1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
17
|
McGill, Lillian, et al., v. C.F. Ryals, 1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
18
|
McNail, Landy, et al., v. Drew, 1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
19
|
Miscellaneous cases, 1964-1966
|
|
Box
2
Folder
20
|
Mississippi v. Shirley Anderson, et al., 1964-1965
|
|
|
Mississippi and/or Greenwood v. Stokely Carmichael
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1
|
Correspondence, 1964-1968
|
|
Box
3
Folder
2
|
Legal documents, 1964-1966
|
|
|
Mississippi v. Milton Hancock et al.
|
|
Box
3
Folder
3
|
Correspondence, 1964-1966
|
|
Box
3
Folder
4
|
Legal documents, 1964-1965
|
|
Box
3
Folder
5
|
Mississippi v. McKeller, 1965
|
|
|
Peacock, Willie, et al., v. Greenwood
|
|
Box
3
Folder
6
|
Correspondence, 1965-1966
|
|
Box
3
Folder
7-8
|
Legal documents, 1964-1966
|
|
PH Mss 513
|
Photographs
|
|
Mss 513
Box
3
Folder
9
|
Posey, Buford, v. Mississippi, 1965
|
|
Box
3
Folder
10
|
Smith, Arlena, et al., v. Grover Harrison, et al., 1966
|
|
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Smith, Irwin, et al., v. Joan Baez
|
|
Box
3
Folder
11
|
Correspondence, 1963-1964
|
|
Box
3
Folder
12
|
Depositions, 1963
|
|
Box
3
Folder
13
|
Thomas, Margaret, et al., v. Joseph Capaci, et al., 1961-1965
|
|
Box
3
Folder
14
|
Tyson, Bertrand, v. Louisiana, 1965
|
|
Box
3
Folder
15
|
United Packinghouse Food and Allied Workers v. Gordy Salt, 1964
|
|
Box
3
Folder
16
|
UPWA v. H.L. Green Co., 1963
|
|
Box
3
Folder
17
|
UPWA v. Kalmbach & Buchkett Co., 1962
|
|
Box
3
Folder
18
|
UPWA v. Thompson Machinery Co., 1964
|
|
|
U.S. ex rel Edgar La Bat v. Sigler, Walker
|
|
|
Correspondence
|
|
Box
3
Folder
19
|
1962-1964
|
|
Box
4
Folder
1
|
1965-1967
|
|
Box
4
Folder
2-4
|
Legal documents, 1963-1965
|
|
Box
4
Folder
5
|
U.S. v. Cleveland Nelson, 1964
|
|
Box
4
Folder
6
|
Vagrancy file, undated
|
|
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