Smith, Robert Lloyd, 1861-1942.

Robert Lloyd Smith, founder of the Farmers Improvement Society, was one of the leading African-American educators and public figures in Texas during the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. Both of his wives, one of whom passed away early in his stay in Texas, assisted him in his many political and educational pursuits, until his death in 1942. For over fifty years, Robert Smith poured his energy and passion into this society as a way of helping sharecropping African-Americans improve their lives.

Smith was born in 1861 to free African-American parents in Charleston, South Carolina. From early in life, he received a very unusual amount of schooling, first at Avery Normal Institute, then at the University of South Carolina in mathematics and English, and finally at Atlanta University in teaching. After teaching in public schools from 1880 to 1885 in Georgia and South Carolina, Robert Smith came to Oakland, Texas, with his wife Francis Isabella.

Smith was appointed principal of the school at Oakland, and shortly transformed the school into one of the best teacher training schools in the state. Inspired by New England self-improvement societies, Smith founded one in 1889 for African-Americans in Oakland, which he named the Village Improvement Society. The society focused on helping black people improve the aesthetics of their areas of town. The Society also formed a school for local African-American children. This society would become the foundation for the future Farmers Improvement Society.

Smith also became involved in politics by running for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 1894 and 1896, winning two terms. As a member of the legislature, Smith pushed hard for education, introducing bills authorizing land purchases for Prairie View College, but met with defeat on bills contesting the Landlord and Tenant Act, and outlawing lynching and election fraud. Smith left the legislature in 1898. He also served as deputy United States Marshal, headed the Negro Extension Division, served on the board of the Jeanes and Slater Foundation with Andrew Carnegie and Booker T. Washington, and served as first president of the National Negro Business League.

Continuing his efforts to help African-American sharecroppers, Smith changed the name of his Village Improvement Society to the Farmers Improvement Society, and began organizing branches throughout Texas with five stated goals: aiding members upon a death in the family, improving homes and communities, abolishing the credit structure, helping families cooperate in purchases, and spreading new farming methods. The society held a yearly conference for members, provided life insurance, financed a bank, operated an overalls factory, and provided a social life in a religious and fraternal setting for African-Americans across Texas. By 1911, the high point of the organization, the society claimed 12,000 members in 800 branches across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Though juvenile branches were started after that, and other ways to increase membership were tried, the onset of the Depression signaled the beginning of the end for the society.

While still in the state legislature, Smith began attending national conferences with other black leaders, and eventually became an aide to Booker T. Washington. He corresponded regularly with Washington, and borrowed many of his ideas to try out in Texas.

One of his biggest imported ideas from Booker Washington was the idea of a vocational school to help educate the children of African-American sharecroppers. The Farmers Improvement Society began a boarding vocational-agricultural school for black children in Fannin County, Texas, near Ladonia. Smith, as a lifelong educator, became heavily involved in the finances, teaching, organization, and daily tasks of this school. Despite good attendance, problems with finances continued, and Smith's death spelled the end of the school.

Robert Smith died on July 10, 1942, in Waco, Texas, which had been his home since he served in the Texas legislature. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Waco.

From the description of Farmers Improvement Society records, 1892-1943 1930-1942. (Baylor University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 742621050