Kokomo Black History Month Salute to: Rev. William Smith Jr.

Rev. William Smith Jr. is seemingly steeped in African American history here in Kokomo. In the past seven years he has become the politically powerful pastor and popular progressive leader of Second Missionary Baptist Church.

“I have a church that has a history of making a difference in the community,” opined Smith, the latest in a string of 18 pastors since its founding in 1887. “For many, they are in church one day a week, but they’re in this world six other days. I have a congregation that understands that we want to be relevant; we want to make a difference.

“Preserving history is my thing,” he told this reporter during our flavorful ZOOM interview. “That’s my calling [card]. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you are going”.

I have only just a minute,

Only sixty seconds in it.

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.

But it’s up to me

to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it.

Give account if I abuse it.

Just a tiny little minute,

but eternity is in it.

That’s Pastor Smith’s favorite poem and a metaphor for his life. It was written by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the legendary Baptist minister and Atlanta Civil Rights Movement intellectual leader. He was the revered former President of Morehouse College who was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “spiritual mentor”.

“I’m a lover of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and when I study Dr. King, I also study those who are connected to Dr. King,” said Smith, a graduate of Morehouse College’s Pastoral Leadership Program, which no longer exists. “Dr. Mays was just a powerhouse of a man. I am just drawn to him, and that quote says a lot about time. People say I do a whole lot, but I also feel like life is nothing but a minute. If COVID 19 hasn’t taught us anything else, it should have taught us that. It’s about what you do with the time you have.”

In that context, Pastor Smith lamented that Black History Month does not carry as much significance as perhaps it once did, nor are we honoring it as much as we should, he argues.

“We constantly say that Black History is 365 days of the year. That sounds good. I wish it was true, but our schools don’t even want to talk about it,” he laughed incredulously.  “That’s key for me. How many kids know who Dr. Martin King Jr. is other than his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, which really wasn’t his speech? How many would know who wrote The Negro National Anthem and could recite even one verse? That’s our history; why do we prevent understanding that? Who is Fredrick Douglass? We have The Douglass School, but who is Fredrick Douglass?”

Smith added, “We are removed some years from the Civil Rights Movement. Sometimes, I think we feel that we’ve arrived. If we have, we have to know who brought us this far.”

That’s why Pastor Smith is the president of Embracing Hope of Howard County, a non-profit that owns Douglass School and is leading the effort to restore and preserve a school that was built for Kokomo’s Black children in 1919. Fredrick Douglass was a renowned African American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and national leader during the 1800s.

During a visit to Kokomo in 1940, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt requested a visit to Douglass School, emphasizing the importance of education for all Americans, according to published reports. In the 1950s, Douglass School merged with the all-white Willard School, before Douglass closed in 1968. The building served several uses over the next 40 years before being vacated.

That is my baby,” he replied with glee. “In December, someone asked me why was that so important?”

Pastor Smith said he hadn’t thought about it until they asked him. “You haven’t had training in history,” they said. “It wasn’t what you went to school for, so why?”

He thought about it and answered, “How can you have a treasure in your community that looks abandoned? If walls could talk; there are so many stories that could be told.”

“I will never forget my conversation with Douglass School former teacher Mr. Lawrence Ewing before his death.” He regrets not recording that talk. “It is just so powerful. These stories are not going to be with us forever. The school, we are just going through and restoring. It’s not open and running yet. We have a Steering Committee working to get it there.”

And what do you envision, I asked?

“It will be an all-minority history museum for the region; a regional history of how did we come here? Why were we here? Who are some of the major players in our history?”

It promises to be a Kokomo/Howard County first ever that gives an overview of important historical events.

“We are looking at African American history, Native American history, and Asian specific history and trying to pinpoint some important dates in time,” he said. “Douglass School will have its own flavor, but not really competing. We are not just going to be a museum. We also want to be a place that provides mentoring, programs, and projects that encourage continued appreciation for history.”

Smith said he is confident that a majority of Kokomo’s citizenry respect what he is doing. Is it well received by both Black people and whites?

“It’s very much supported,” in the white community, Pastor Smith contended. “One of the things that has been touching is that when the school was integrated there are many who tell the story of that was their first interaction they had with an African American. So, being able to tell those stories, and those continued friendships, from that experience, it turned from a bad situation that they didn’t understand as children and only did what they were told, but now when they come back many of them say they didn’t realize it had been a segregated school.”

Pastor Smith is no solo act. His wife, Dennine Smith, heads the Coordinated Assistance Ministries, an advocacy organization for the homeless and hungry. It is a partnership in ministry.

“It’s a joy, we are a team,” he gleefully gushed. “It’s also a joy because I see the lives that are being changed.”

Is the church still playing a major role in the civil and human rights arena for African Americans?, I asked the pastor who came here from Portsmouth, Va. Does the Black church, a staple among Black folk throughout history, remain a powerful political force, or has its influence waned?

“We are becoming a more pluralistic society,” he replied. “African Americans are adapting to various other traditions unlike what we have known for years. In some ways the church is seen as not relevant. That is also why I am so passionate about this community work of Douglass School, because we must have boots on the ground. We can pray all we want, but if you are not active where folks are meeting and finding out where decisions are made, what grants are available? If you are not involved, then we will miss opportunities to make a difference.”

The Black church tradition finds its roots in the painful experiences of African Americans enduring slavery, as well as events during the Jim Crow era, subsequent voting rights discrimination, and tragic police episodes.

Pastor Smith passionately preached, “The Black church was started because we couldn’t worship anywhere else. It was where you got your community information. That’s where we found refuge. We need to continue to strive as pastors and leaders to just be relevant to the times. You have Black Lives Matter, [but] that was not even started in the church. So, with this pluralistic society – which goes back to my work with Fredrick Douglass – finding ways that our faith can be connected to why we do what we do.”