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LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE entry to the all white schools for their children. Senator Eastland responded to the ruling, stating the decree: "...calls for an immediate start for the mixing of the races in the schools...To resist is the only answer. We must resist them in the courts, in our legislative halls, and by the ballots of our people. | know Southern people will not surrender their dual school system and their racial heritage at the command of this crowd of racial politicians in judicial robes." On August 13, 1955, Lamar Smith, a sixty-three year ojd farmer, World War II veteran, and black voting advocate, was murdered in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on the courthouse. lawn, in front of the sheriff. Three white men were arrested for the murder however; a grand jury did not return any 34,33 indictments in the case. 6, The Scene of Events: The societal issues and realities noted above set the stage _ for the kidnaping of Till which occurred on August 28, 1955. The white citizens of Mississippi were bombarded daily with news surrounding the end of segregated schools, efforts by blacks to register to vote and the heated calls for the defense of their segregated way of life. Senators, Congressmen, the State Assembly, the Governor and most public officials were calling on the population to defend the status quo, to defy the Supreme Court implementation ruling, oppose federal efforts to enforce segregated schools and to continue poll practices which disenfranchised blacks. The fear that they would lose control of their way of life permeated the lower socioeconomic segments of the white community. This segment of the community, in particular, believed they had the most to lose if the black community truly became equal. 36 7 [bid., 86 to 87 * Ibid, 96 to 97 ‘ 5 The Citizens’ Council, Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-64, Neil R. McMillen, 1994, 217 3% Hugh Steven Whitaker, “A Case Study in Southern Justice ~ The Emmett Till Case”, (Master's Thesis, Florida State University, 1963), 82 to 100 A 13 LAW ENF ORCEMENT SENSITIVE This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions af che FBI. [ct is the property of the FBI and 1s loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency. | F d