MEMPHIS — Maxine A. Smith, an influential Memphis civil rights leader, died Friday. She was 83.
Smith, retired executive secretary of the Memphis branch of the NAACP and a former city school board member, had chronic heart problems, according to The Commercial Appeal.
She was a part of every significant chapter in the city’s storied history of race relations over half a century, from protest to integration to busing to the rise of Black political power.
“Today we mourn the passing of civil rights icon, Maxine Smith,” Memphis Mayor AC Wharton said on Facebook. “With her death, Memphis has lost a legendary leader for human rights and one of the brightest stars in the great expanse of our city’s history.”
“There is nobody like Maxine. She was an amazing woman with an ability to interact with all kinds of people, a brilliant strategist. … Above all, she was my friend,” said Rep. Johnnie Turner, former executive director of the local NAACP chapter.
Georgia Maxine Atkins Smith was born in Memphis during the Depression at a time of rigid segregation.
As an adult, Smith set about changing the racial status quo. In the process, she and a generation of Black Memphians, including her husband, former County Commissioner Vasco Smith, changed the city forever with a knowledge of Memphis, past and present, that helped them make the transition from protesters to elected leaders.
