Arthur D. Smith, Sr.

Arthur D. Smith, Sr., was a beloved educator and a civic, religious, and political leader whose work in Bienville Parish and Grambling included a teaching career that began in 1939 and lasted thirty-one years, service as the first principal of the GSU Laboratory School, and more than twenty years as a professor in the Grambling College Teacher Education Program. In 1941 he opened a property and casualty insurance agency, the only one of its kind operated by an African American in the vast northern Louisiana area. He also served for many years on the Grambling Town Council, was affiliated with numerous major education organizations, volunteered with the Boy Scouts for more than twenty years, and was a dedicated deacon and finance officer at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, as well as a devoted husband and father. In 1971, Smith said that his life was the story "of one who has been a farmer, a day laborer, a public school teacher, an insurance agent, a college professor, and of a person who continually-tried to he a good citizen, a Christian gentleman, and friend of other human beings".

Grambling, Louisiana · United States