Dates: 1962; 1980-1991

Biography:

Robert L. T. Smith

Robert L. T. Smith was born in Duke, a community located ten miles northwest of Utica, Hinds County, Mississippi, on December 2, 1902. He was the son of James M. and Theresa Shuler Smith. Robert L. T. Smith was named for his maternal grandfather, Robert Shuler, a former slave who purchased land during Reconstruction and became a successful farmer. Smith married Annie Louise Mason around 1924, and the couple had eleven children, including Annie B., Edward Preston, Gloria Ellen, Jerelyn, Mary Louise, Robert L. T., Jr., Roberta, Royce Mervin, and Tresa Marie.

Because the public schools were segregated, Smith was educated at a local church school. After completing the eighth grade, he taught school in Copiah County for twenty-eight dollars a month and later in Quitman County for fifty dollars a month. Unable to support his family, he moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1925 to work for the United States Postal Service as a letter-carrier in the neighborhoods around Belhaven and Millsaps colleges. Smith worked for the post office for thirty-three years before retiring in 1958.

After World War II, Smith and his son, Robert L. T., Jr., opened the Smith Supermarket in Jackson. He also operated a real-estate agency and acquired real-estate holdings in Jackson. In 1955, Smith co-founded the State Mutual Federal Savings and Loan Association with Jacob L. Reddix, president of Jackson State College (Jackson State University). State Mutual provided loans to African-American churches, civic groups, and the disadvantaged. Smith served on the board of directors of State Mutual.

Smith was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since its first Hinds County meeting in 1925. He was actively involved in the civil-rights movement in Jackson during the 1950s and 1960s. Smith also became a close friend of Medgar Evers, Mississippi field secretary of the NAACP. In 1959, Smith and others filed a lawsuit to prevent the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission from allocating certain state funds to the White Citizens’ Councils of America. He unsuccessfully challenged incumbent United States Representative John Bell Williams in 1962. Smith, Aaron Henry, and the United Church of Christ were plaintiffs in the 1964 lawsuit against WLBT, which compelled the Jackson-based television station to provide fair coverage of African-American events.

Active in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Smith was an alternate with the group of delegates that failed to unseat the regular Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Smith was one of the delegates who unseated the regular Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Smith was a member of the board of directors of Mississippi Action for Progress, which was established in 1967 to monitor Head Start programs in Mississippi. He served on the MAP board from 1967 to 1991. Other board members included Aaron Henry and Owen Cooper.

During his lifetime, Smith served as pastor of three churches: Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Learned, Hinds County, Mississippi; St. John Baptist Church in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi; and Mt. Elam Missionary Baptist Church in Pearl, Rankin County, Mississippi. He was pastor of Oak Hill for more than fifty years and Mt. Elam for thirty-nine years.

Tougaloo College awarded Smith an honorary doctorate in 1980. The Mississippi legislature passed a resolution commending Smith in 1985. The University of Mississippi inducted Smith into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1987. Smith died at the age of ninety on October 1, 1993.

 

Scope and Content Note:

The Robert L. T. Smith papers consist of congressional campaign papers, essays, poems, miscellaneous papers, and printed materials.

 

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Congressional Campaign Papers. 1962. 1 folder.
Smith’s political campaign papers regard his unsuccessful bid for the United States House of Representatives in 1962. They include essays and press releases addressing issues such as civil rights and communism. Among the press releases are Smith’s announcement as a congressional candidate and his responses to several legislative bills, especially one barring African-Americans from attending Mississippi legislative debates and discussions.

Series 2: Essays. 1984-1990; n.d. 1 folder.
Dating from 1984 to 1990, Smith’s essays cover a variety of subjects, including family matters, politics, and religion. Some essays comment on individuals such as Owen Cooper and W. P. Davis.

Series 3: Poems. 1984-1990. 1 folder.
Dating from 1984 to 1990, Smith’s  poetry cover a variety of subjects, including family matters, politics, and religion. 

Series 4: Miscellaneous Papers. 1985; 1987; 1990. 1 folder.
Among the miscellaneous items is a copy of Mississippi House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution No. 93, which recognized Smith’s lifetime of civic leadership in 1985. There is a program from Smith’s Omicron Delta Kappa induction ceremony at the University of Mississippi on February 5, 1987. There are also copies of two July 27, 1990, letters from Smith, the first to Mrs. Owen Cooper of Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Mississippi, and the second to Lee Marcus Collins of College Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi.

Series 5: Printed Materials. 1980-1991. 1 folder.
The printed materials include newsletters, newspapers, and news clippings regarding the activities of Smith. A few articles concern his induction into Omicron Delta Kappa. A copy of a 1990 article by Smith discusses a grant awarded to Tougaloo College to preserve important archival collections documenting the civil-rights movement in Mississippi.