A Black community leader who protested against former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was found dead this week, multiple news reports confirmed.
Sherry Gamble Smith was discovered dead by police in her Bixby, Oklahoma home on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. Her husband, Martin Everett Smith, was found critically wounded at the scene and later died at the hospital, per the report.
The city police department said that an investigation into what happened is underway and said the incident “appears to be domestic in nature,” according to The AP.
Gamble Smith was the president and CEO of the Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, an organization that “serves as an advocate to unify, promote and empower the African American community through entrepreneurship, programming, economic development, education, and training in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” according to its website.
In a statement on Friday, the organization described Gamble Smith as an “extraordinary leader” and “trailblazer.”
The Associated Press reported that Gamble Smith voiced strong disapproval against Trump’s campaign event which was set to take place on Juneteenth in Tulsa — where a white mob rioted in a thriving Black community in 1921 — amid the COVID-19 pandemic and following the death of George Floyd in 2020. Per the outlet, she called the move a “slap in the face.”
Trump later pushed his event back after “many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday,” he said at the time, before taking credit for making Juneteenth “famous.”
According to Tulsa World, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is helping to look into Gamble Smith’s death.
