Steve Smith and a co-worker of Steve's, an African-American man from Georgia, Eric Morton, were planning to deliver voter registration materials to the Mississippi Delta region, about a two to three hour drive from Jackson. 

Eric Morton: “Steve Smith said, I'll go with you, I can help you drive. And once we got on that freeway and headed north we noticed cars following us. Pretty soon way out on the freeway they held us over and that's when they made us get out of the truck and lined us up on the freeway. They then took Steve and put him in one of the cars and suddenly you could see the car just rocking where they were beating him.” 

(Dramatization of Steve Smith’s voice): “He opened the door and told me to get inside. I got inside and sat on the back seat. He told me to move over and got in. All the windows and doors were shut. He said, I can't kill you, but do you know what I'm going to do to you? I answered, no sir. At this time he pulled his gun out of his holster and started to hit me on the head with the gun butt. I put my hands up to protect my head and rolled into a ball on the seat. Over a period of about a minute he hit me about four times on the head and about eight to ten times on the left hand. He then put the gun to my temple and cocked it. He said, if you move I'll blow your brains out.” 

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Morton: “Eventually SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) came and got us out of jail and drove us. As we were driving out, getting in the car, I looked behind, I was in the back seat with Steve and I looked back over my shoulder and there was that highway patrolman in his car, again, just following. And I nudged Steve and I said, look at that. And he looked back there and he just bowed his head and I could tell he was very upset by it. And I think that's the last time I talked to Steve.”