April 9, 1966: 58 years ago, April 8 1966, Oakland police brutally beat Luther Smith and [...]

58 years ago, April 8 1966, Oakland police brutally beat Luther Smith and his family in their West Oakland home. Their case would play a major role in the successful push by activists to establish Oakland’s Citizen Police Review Board

Shortly after the beating, Smith’s case was taken up by lawyer Robert Treuhaft, a former Communist Party member who was one of the Bay Area’s leading defender of political radicals, union members, and police brutality victims

The Oakland Direct Action Committee, a civil rights & anti-police brutality organization led by Mark Comfort and Curtis Lee Baker (the “Black Jesus of West Oakland”), was also heavily involved in the fight for justice for the Smith family