Smith, McNeill (John McNeill), 1918-2011

John McNeill Smith (b. 1918) was a lawyer and North Carolina state legislator.

From the description of McNeill Smith papers, 1975-1979 [manuscript]. (East Carolina University). WorldCat record id: 641642172

John McNeill Smith, Jr., "McNeill", was born in Robeson County, North Carolina on April 9, 1918, fifty-three years to the day after the South surrendered to end the Civil War, John McNeill Smith Jr., grew up in a racially segregated society.

He graduated from Rowland High School in 1934. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1938, and received his law degree from Columbia University in 1941.

Mr. Smith served four years in the United States Navy during World War II, traveling throughout North Africa, the Middle East and Asia for bomb disposal, and retiring as a Lt Commander in 1945.

For over fifty years, McNeill practiced law in Greensboro, NC with the law firm known now as Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP. While Mr. Smith practiced law the firm grew from six to over 100 lawyers, making it at times the largest firm in the state.

McNeill Smith led negotiations in 1960 between business leaders and the student protestors engaged in sit-ins in the Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro. The negotiations led to Greensboro's business owners peacefully opening up previously white-only stores to black patrons. Mr. Smith continued acting as a negotiator in the desegregation of local hotels, motels and restaurants.

Coincidentally, a German exchange student living during 1957-58 with the Smiths, Monika Engelken (later Stuhr) became best friends with Josephine Boyd (later Bradley), a brave rising senior from then all-black Dudley High School, who in 1957 was the first to transfer to attend then all-white Greensboro (now Grimsley) High School.

In 1985, the National Law Journal recognized Mr. Smith as one of the hundred most influential attorneys in the United States.

In 2000, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Greensboro Bar Association. Mr. Smith joined the legal bars of North Carolina, New York and the United States and North Carolina Supreme Courts, as well as the Greensboro, North Carolina, American and International Bar Associations. He belonged to the American Judicature Society and the International Association of Insurance Counsel.

He was a member of the Lawyers' Alliance for World Security, which supported nuclear arms control, and otherwise promoted world peace through law in diverse forums national and local. In a 1970 speech Mr. Smith remarked that "America cannot police the whole world and should not try to. World problems need world institutions to solve them. Our main effort should be to get such institutions going."

In 1970, people of Guilford County elected Mr. Smith to the North Carolina House of Representatives. Governor Scott appointed Mr. Smith to the North Carolina Senate to fill the vacancy upon the resignation of Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles. Mr. Smith was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1972 and re-elected in 1974 and 1976, leading the ticket in votes received. The National Law Journal described Mr. Smith as "a former legislator who didn't fall in line with any party discipline, but had feet in both liberal and mainline conservative camps." "Colleagues in the General Assembly regard Smith as one of the brightest legislators. Debating with Smith, a legislator once said, 'is like going one-on-one with David Thompson,' NC State's basketball All-American," rang an editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer, June 23, 1974.

In 1978, Mr. Smith ran to be the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate seat then held by Jesse Helms. While unsuccessful in that bid, he enjoyed debating the issues and meeting with citizens throughout the state. His supporters wore t-shirts that read "Skinny Cat for McNeill Smith," and he had a political jingle called "Take the tax off food."

His grandfather was a Methodist minister and his mother was the music director of the Rowland United Methodist Church in which Mr. Smith held a lifetime membership.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr. Smith served as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Tar Heel, was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Delta Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities, was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, and was a member of the Class of 1938, which has for decades sponsored the Fund for Global Education.

As a teenager, Mr. Smith became an accomplished clarinetist. He formed a band in college, the Carolina Buccaneers, which performed on the German ocean liner the Columbus going to and on the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen coming back from the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. He continued to perform as a clarinetist into the 1990s with the Greensboro Concert Band.

An avid photographer with a 35 mm Leica, Mr. Smith won a Saturday Evening Post photo contest with a picture of a sand dune from Holden Beach, North Carolina. He was an Eagle Scout. Mr. Smith rode his bicycle to work for 50 years. An editorial cartoon of him cycling to work in his business suit and fedora appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper.

From memorial for John McNeill Smith Jr. (#64305507) on the Find a Grave website (viewed 20 July 2022)

John McNeill Smith Jr. (1918- ), attorney, state legislator, and teacher, practiced law in Greensboro, N.C. He was attorney for University of North Carolina students in the Speaker Ban case in 1963; co-counsel, 1958-1962, for Junius Irving Scales, a Communist Party member charged with advocating violent overthrow of the government; and negotiator during the 1960 lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro. Smith served as state representative and then senator, 1971-1978. After an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate in 1978, he continued to practice law and taught constitutional law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

From the description of McNeill Smith papers, 1937-1999 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 48030920

John McNeill Smith Jr., attorney, state legislator, and teacher, was born in Rowland, Robeson County, N.C., on 9 April 1918. Smith was graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1938 and received his law degree from Columbia University in 1941. After World War II service in the Navy as a bomb disposal officer in North Africa, the Middle East, China, Burma, and India, Smith returned to North Carolina to practice law in Greensboro with Smith, Moore, Smith, Schell, and Hunter, a firm that became one of the largest in the state.

Smith became known as an advocate of human rights and equal justice, frequently taking cases that other lawyers refused. In 1963, he was the attorney for University of North Carolina students in the Speaker Ban case. From 1958 to 1962, Smith was co-counsel for Junius Irving Scales, a Communist Party member who was charged with advocating the violent overthrow of the United States government. In 1960, Smith was the negotiator between black and white leaders during the lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro. He continued acting as a negotiator in the desegregation of hotels, motels, and sit-down restaurants.

In 1970, Smith was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, and, in 1972, to the North Carolina Senate. From 1971 to 1978, he developed a reputation as a liberal lawmaker, supporting such issues as tax reform, education, energy, consumer issues, creation of a state Department of Transportation, tougher laws against drunk drivers, and consolidation of the University of North Carolina system. In 1978, Smith unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate, losing in the Democratic primary. Smith built his campaign around defeating incumbent Jesse Helms. After his defeat, Smith returned to civil litigation and also taught constitutional law at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 1989-1990, Smith was ranked as one of the nation's most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal for his work in establishing the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union. From 1992 to 1993, Smith traveled to Estonia to help the Soviet republic in its legal preparations to become self governing.

From the guide to the McNeill Smith Papers, 1937-1999, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)