San Diego Civil Rights Movement

Reverend Smith became a pastor of the Presbyterian church in the Golden Hills region of San Diego, taking up a large part of his professional career by serving the local community in this capacity. Furthermore, the Reverend served on the Board of Directors for the San Diego chapters of the Boy Scouts, Big Brothers, and Urban League, demonstrating his passion for helping local youth within the city through outreach programs. Simultaneously, education played a role in his political comeuppance in participation with the National School Board Association (NSBA) as a Board Director, further establishing his involvement with local disadvantaged youth within the community.

One particular archival document which demonstrates Rev. Smith’s involvement in the local Civil Rights Movement comes from his “Proposal for the Eradication of Racial Conflict in America.” In his work, Rev. Smith outlines a cautionary message following the successes of the Civil Rights Movement, explaining that racial injustices of the past towards African Americans should not be solved with further racism (i.e. ‘eye for an eye’). As he explains, “promoting distrust and apprehension in these relations is nothing less than a hideous and senseless CRIME, comparable to a poisonous bacteria released into the air everybody breathes.” Taking after MLK’s famous notion of reciprocal societal curiosity, regardless of race, Rev. Smith adopts a similar notion in this document, demonstrating the larger Civil Rights Movement’s impact on San Diego leaders.