That same day, 240 miles south of Senatobia, a World War I veteran named Lamar Smith had been encouraging Black people to vote in the upcoming runoff election. He stood in front of the Brookhaven courthouse with a box of absentee ballots, a tool that allowed voters to avoid the customary intimidation and violence at the polls. White politicians and bureaucrats worked hard to create a false narrative that absentee votes somehow wouldn’t count; the intimidation was a key part of the disenfranchisement plan. One witness said later that he heard Smith’s last words: “No white man is big enough to
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