EDWARD D. SMITH, Black Church History

I  grew up in the Upstate Region of South Carolina.  I attended the racially segregated public schools of that period.  I was among the first group of black students to desegregate the local formerly all-white High School from which I graduated in 1967.  In that same year, I enrolled in Berea College in Kentucky, from which I graduated in 1970 with a BA degree in History.  In 1971, I entered The American University in Washington, D.C., where I obtained a M.A. degree in American History in 1973.

 

It was during the summer of 1973, that I became acquainted with the Smithsonian's Anacostia Neighborhood Museum.  My History Department Chairman, Dr. David Brandenburg, referred me to Dr. David Challinor, who was Assistant Secretary for Science and Research, at the Smithsonian.  Dr. Challinor, in turn, put me in touch with Rev. John R. Kinard, who was the Director of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum.  I was hired as a Summer Research Assistant to work under Mrs. Louise Daniel Hutchinson, who was the Historian at the museum .  I was so excited that I started work before I  knew how I would be paid, and I went through several pairs of glasses due to eye strain from reading newspapers for 8 hours each day; but I enjoyed every minute. 

                           

 

                          

 

 

 

                                                                                         

 

Rev. John R. Kinard and Mrs. Louise Daniel Hutchinson, of the Anacostia Museum encouraged my career.

                                                        

As a married graduate student with financial concerns, I accepted my first job offer as a Public  Historian in 1975.  The job was with the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.  My former boss at Anacostia, Mrs. Hutchinson, recommended me for the job.  

 

In 1977, I accepted  my second Public History position, this time with the National Park Service's Denver Service Center, C&O Canal Restroration Team.  As Historian for the    Restoration Team, I researched and wrote historic structure reports and historical resource studies on sites along the canal from Brunswick to Cumberland, Maryland.   My historic structure report on The Stone House (Salty Dog Saloon) opposite Harper's Ferry, along with my three historic resource studies, on Brunswick, Cumberland and Williamsport, Maryland, have now been placed on-line by the National Park Service.  (See links below).

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http://www.nps.gov/choh/learn/historyculture/upload/Lock-33-Stone-House-HSR-Smith.pdf

 

http://www.nps.gov/choh/learn/historyculture/upload/Brunswick-HRS-Smith.pdf

 

http://www.nps.gov/choh/learn/historyculture/upload/Cumberland-HRS-Smith.pdf

 

https://www.nps.gov/choh/learn/historyculture/upload/Williamsport-HRS-Smith.pdf

 

In 1981, I entered the doctoral program at the University of Tennessee , Knoxville, where I continued my studies until 1984, when the Anacostia Museum, invited me to come back and again work under Mrs. Hutchinson, this time as an Historian.  Upon my return, I immediately accepted the assignment to take on the black church exhibit.  The project was a labor of love, gratitude and personal fulfillment.  I have always enjoyed talking to, and interviewing older people, and most of my church contacts were at least a generation older than I was at the time.  My book (exhibit catalog), Climbing Jacob's Ladder:  The Rise of Black Churches in Eastern American Cities, 1740-1877, was dedicated to two of those senior churchmen, Mr. Raymond A.C. Young, of Bethel AME Baltimore, and Mr. Ralph Epps of Charles Street AME in Boston.  Both men passed away before the book was finished.

 

The exhibit received rave reviews in the local and national news media when it opened on October 18, 1987.  It was converted into a traveling exhibit which toured cities around the country for 10 years.  The book, which was published a year later (1988), was in such demand that the Smithsonian ordered reprint editions printed in 1990 and 1998.

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​​Rev. John R. Kinard, Alex Haley, and Ed Smith at the filming of Haley's Public Service Announcement for the exhibit, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder" in 1987.

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Both the exhibit, and its catalog, were seen as ground breaking.  I believe the exhibit and its accompanying catalog led to an acceptance of Black Church History as a legitimate field of study in the academic community, as seen by the numerous dissertations, scholarly papers, and books that have appeared since the late 1980s.

 

So as we approach the 35th anniversary of the publication of the book (2023), it is appropriate that I use this website to commemorate the book and correspond with persons interested in the subject.  I have a few brand new courtesy copies that were given to me by the publisher, the Smithsonian Press, shortly after publication.  Now after 35 years, it appears that new copies have become collector items.

 

PROLOGUE

 

I departed the Anacostia Museum in 1991, and spent the remainder of my Public History career as an Archivist with the National Archives, from which I retired in 2009.  A year following retirement, I returned to the workforce briefly as an Analyst with a government contractor, where I remained for 2 1/2 years before retiring again, to pursue personal interests, including building this website and writing.

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I have since written and self-published 3 additional books, all on my alma mater, Berea College.  They are: 

 

All Black Students Meet: The Rise of the Black Student Union at Berea College in Kentucky, 1968-1970 :  A Memoir (2016). 

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Black Power Comes to Appalachia: Bereans Create the Black Appalachian Commission, A Documentary History, 1969-70 (2019). 

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They Regrettably Appeared In Berea College Yearbooks Too: Blackface and Other Racially Insensitive Images on Campus 1931-1970, An Essay on Race and Education (2020).

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