Smith, C. S. (Charles Spencer), 1852-1923

Teacher and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church.

Charles Spencer Smith, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and founder of the denomination's Sunday School Union, was born in Colborne, Canada, on March 16, 1852, son of Catharine and Nehemiah Henry Smith, and died on February 1, 1923. His home was Detroit, Michigan.

Although best known for his activities in the A.M.E. Church, Smith had a varied career. He received his education in the public schools of Canada and moved to the United States after the Civil War. From 1869 through 1871 he taught school under the Freedman's Bureau in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama. Smith was ordained to the ministry of the A.M.E. Church in 1872 and was elected to the House of Representatives of the Alabama State Legislature in 1874, serving until 1876. He studied at Central Tennessee College (later Walden University) in Nashville and received an M.D. from Meharry Medical college in Nashville in 1880.

Smith served briefly as a pastor in the 1870's, and in the 1880's became more actively involved in the A.M.E. Church. In 1882 he proposed that a Sunday School similar to that of the Methodist Episcopal Church be established in the A.M.E. Church. The plan was adopted by the Bishops' Council, and Smith was appointed corresponding secretary and treasurer of the new Sunday School Union, a position he held until 1900. Smith also edited the Union's journals, The Child's Recorder and Our Sunday School Review.

In May 1900, Smith was elected the twenty-eighth bishop of the A.M.E. Church. He was first assigned to the Twelfth Episcopal District, which included Canadian and South American conferences, as well as Bermuda and the Windward Islands. He was also put in charge of the Louisiana conference. In 1904, Smith was assigned to the Thirteenth Episcopal District, comprising the South African conferences, but he left there in 1905 following a controversy over financial affairs and other matters within the church. He then took charge of the work in West Africa. Smith was assigned to the Sixth Episcopal District (Georgia) in 1908, the Tenth Episcopal District (Texas) in 1912, and the Fifteenth Episcopal District (Michigan, Canada, and Bermuda) in 1916. Bishop Smith retired in 1920 from active conference supervision and was appointed church historiographer. He was the author of numerous pamphlets and wrote a book, Glimpses of Africa (1895), in which he drew on his experiences during a trip to the west and southwest coasts of Africa in 1894. In the final years of his life, Smith wrote a history of the A.M.E. Church.

Smith married Kate Josephine Black in March 1876. They had one child who survived, Susan Elnora Smith, who later married John W. Evans. Kate Smith died in 1885. In December 1888, Smith married Christine Shoecraft, a school teacher. They had a son, Charles Spencer Smith, Jr.