We were so blessed to see the short article on the Emmett Till case on p A7 Wednesday. Though many articles and documentaries have presented facts and testimonies, it is very rare to hear/see any attention directed to the prosecutors. My husband’s father, Robert Bruce Smith III, was the original prosecutor in the Till case in 1955, and his story has gone largely unnoticed. Unfortunately he died in 1967, before anyone asked him to answer the lingering questions and to share his account of the experience.

At the time of the trial, Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, said that my husband’s father did the best he could as well. The opposition in 1955 was huge, and the outcome was easily predicted, when the jury was all white men, in a small rural courthouse in Mississippi, at a time when white lawyers would never prosecute a white man for murdering a Black man.

In this environment, my husband’s father put his career on line in an effort to bring justice. His secretary kept a notebook with articles and letters from people, newspapers and magazines across the country … some vile and hateful, some positive and encouraging. There had been a state trooper sitting outside my husband’s home to protect his family. His father was responsible for keeping the Black witnesses safe as well. His father had a love and respect for the Black people in his life and community. This and his experience as a Marine in WWII and at the FBI before that drove him to take the risk. Fred and Wendy Smith

Colorado Springs