Title: Benjamin E. Smith Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1955-1967

Creator:

• Smith, Benjamin E., 1927?-1976

Call Number: Mss 513; PH Mss 513

Quantity: 3.4 c.f. (1 archives box, 3 record center cartons) and 11 photographs (1 folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

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.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00513

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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.

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.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Benjamin E. Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1966-1973. Accession Number: M66-306, M67-85, M73-149

Processing Information

Processed by John Wright and Carolyn Mattern, December 1979.

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
Box   1 Folder   5	Brown, Addie Sue, et al., v. Meridian, 1964-1965
	Calhoun, Frank, et al., v. Meridian
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
	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
	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