Brookhaven, Miss., native Dick Scruggs was 9 when white men killed Black farm owner Lamar “Ditney” Smith due to his political organizing and campaign. Now, Scruggs wants a marker on the courthouse lawn where Smith died.
Dick Scruggs
Dick Scruggs is a former lawyer who represented Mississippi and a score of states in successfully suing the tobacco industry for the public costs of smoking. Scruggs later pleaded guilty in an unrelated judicial bribery scandal and went to federal prison. Upon returning to Oxford, Miss., in 2013, he founded a charity to support high school dropouts trying to attain a GED or work skill. He is originally from Brookhaven, Miss.
