Vanderbilt University Honors Its First African American Administrator

Kelly-Miller-SmithVanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, has announced that it is naming its newest residence hall in honor of Kelly Miller Smith, who served as assistant dean at the Vanderbilt Divinity School from 1969 until his death in 1984. He was the first African American administrator at the university.

Smith was a native of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. He began college at Tennessee State University but completed his bachelor’s degree at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He then earned a divinity degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Smith then became pastor of a church in Vicksburg, Mississippi. During this period he served as chair of the department of religion at Natchez College. In 1951, he became head of the First Baptist Church in Nashville. He served as president of the local chapter of the NAACP and founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Council. Smith was a leader in the Nashville civil rights movement.

Smith was the author of Social Crisis Preaching (Mercer University Press, 1984) based on the Lyman Beecher Lecture Series held at Yale University.

Related Articles

2 COMMENTS

  1. Dr. Kelly Miller Smith was my professor, my mentor, and my friend while I was a student at the Vanderbilt Divinity School (1979-1982). He was a champion for social justice and urged his students to stand up for the plight of all oppressed people around the world. This is a great honor for his legacy and for his family at Vanderbilt University.

  2. A great honor long over due to a well deserving Africa American civil rights leader friend and neighbor. Our family, the family of the late Bishop Ernest T. Dixon, Jr., were neighbors of the Kelly Miller Smith family during the 1960s. Reverend provided outstanding leadership during the turbulent days of the Fisk University sit-in demonstration and the rejection of a friend and fellow United Methodist minister the Reverend James Lawson to the Vanderbilt Divinity School. Thank you Reverend Smith for moral courage and Christian Integrity.

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

New Online Library for the Study of Philanthropy and Black Churches

The new Philanthropy and the Black Church digital collection of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, an organization founded by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Center for the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, aims to provide resources for Black churches and other philanthropic institutions to partner together on strategic initiatives.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Establishes New Research Center to Address Segregation in Local Area

The new Center for Equity Practice and Planning Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee aims to study the history of racial segregation in the local area and advance racially equitable practices in urban planning.

Featured Jobs