Kelly Miller Smith Sr. (October 28, 1920 – June 3, 1984) was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul c ...

preacher, author, and prominent activist in the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, who was based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

Early life

Smith was born and raised in the all-black community of

Mound Bayou, Mississippi Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2010 census, down from 2,102 in 2000. It was founded as an independent black community in 1887 by former slaves led by Isaiah Montgomery. Mound ...

. He attended Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College (later

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...

) from 1938 to 1940, but graduated from

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...

in Atlanta in 1942 with a double major in music and religion. He later received a Bachelor of Divinity degree (now known as a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and di ...

degree) from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

School of Religion in 1945.

Career

Smith moved to

, in 1951 where he became pastor of First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, a post he would retain until his death in 1984. He became president of the Nashville

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

in 1956 and founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC) in 1958. Through the NCLC, Smith helped to organize and support the

Nashville sit-ins The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a protest to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The sit-in campaign, coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and th ...

—a movement which would successfully end racial segregation at lunch counters in Nashville. In a 1964 interview with

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the lit ...

for the book ''

Who Speaks for the Negro? ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' is a 1965 book of interviews by Robert Penn Warren conducted with Civil Rights Movement activists. The book was reissued by Yale University Press in 2014. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderb ...

'', Smith comments that the end to segregation was achieved through much hardship and many negotiations by the NCLC. In 1969, Smith became assistant dean of the

Vanderbilt University Divinity School The Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion (usually Vanderbilt Divinity School) is an interdenominational divinity school at Vanderbilt University, a major research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is one o ...

. He was the first African American to become a faculty member in the school.

Personal life and death

Smith was married to Alice Clark Smith and had four children, daughters Joy Ardelia, Adena Modesta, and Valerie Lin, and son Kelly Miller Smith Jr. He and his wife also reared a foster daughter Dorothy Jean Springfield. Smith died of cancer on June 3, 1984. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville.

Legacy and honors

*The Kelly Miller Smith Memorial Bridge and Kelly Smith Towers in Nashville are named for him. *After his death Vanderbilt University named Th
Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies
at the Divinity School in his memory. The Institute perpetuates his legacy of theological and academic excellence and prophetic witness.
Kelly Miller Smith interviews
housed in the website ''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' hosted by Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. The website is a digital archive of materials related to the book of the same name published by Robert Penn Warren in 1965. The original materials are held at the University of Kentucky and Yale University Libraries. The archive consists of digitized versions of the original reel-to-reel recordings that Warren compiled for each of his interviewees as well as print materials related to the project. Digital archive created and designed by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. * Th
Kelly Miller Smith Papers
housed at Vanderbilt Library in Special Collections, include his sermons, private correspondence, as well as Smith's musical compositions and other papers. A Finding Aid is available for this collection and the later Kelly Miller Smith Papers Addition. * The city of Nashville (Tennessee) renamed a street Kelly Miller Smith Way (formerly 10th Circle) in memory of Kelly Miller Smith Sr. in July 2021.

Selected works

*''Microphone Messages'' (1947) *''A Doorway to Bible Appreciation'' (1948)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Kelly Miller 1920 births 1984 deaths People from Mound Bayou, Mississippi People from Nashville, Tennessee Vanderbilt University faculty African-American Baptist ministers Activists for African-American civil rights African-American activists Baptists from Tennessee Baptists from Mississippi Morehouse College alumni 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States