Eric Ledell Smith (1949 – 2008) was an American historian and author. He served as Commissioner for the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...

. He was part of a presentation on

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

aired on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

. Smith was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. He was inspired by his grandmother, poet Florence Brown. At the time of his death he was working on the ''Trailblazers: Innovative African Americans in Pennsylvania History'' project writing profiles of historical figures. He wrote about subjects of Pennsylvania and African American history including books on

Bert Williams Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. While some sources have ...

, Black Opera, African American theaters, the

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit history museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. It is run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to preserve and interpret the Commonwealth's h ...

, civil rights movement in Pennsylvania, and an article on the Chester Race Riot.

Writings

*''Bert Williams : a biography of the pioneer Black comedian'' McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina (1992) *''Blacks in opera : an encyclopedia of people and companies, 1873-1993'' McFarland (1994) *''The protégé becomes a prophet : Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller'' Pennsylvania heritage (1974). Vol. 22, no. 2 (spring 1996) *''African Americans in Pennsylvania; Shifting Historical Perspectives, edited with Joe W. Trotter, Penn State University Press'' (1997) *"Researching the Underground Railroad in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania" (2000) *"Painted with pride in the U.S.A." PHMC, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (2001) *''African American theater buildings : an illustrated historical directory, 1900-1955'' McFarland (2003) *''The State Museum of Pennsylvania : a centennial history, 1905-2005'' (2005) *"The civil rights movement in Pennsylvania" Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (2006) * "The 1917 Race Riot in Chester, Pennsylvania". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 75 (2): 297–341 (2008)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ledell Eric 1949 births 2008 deaths American historians