Barbara Smith

This interview was made possible with generous support from the Ford Foundation. In this oral history Barbara Smith describes her childhood in an emotionally warm and culturally rich family that valued education and race work. The interview focuses on her activism as a grassroots organizer, writer, and publisher. Smith’s story details the political challenges and personal costs of being a pioneer in radical coalition politics against imperialism, racism, and sexism, and homophobia. Interview recorded on miniDV using Sony Digital Camcorder DSR-PDX10. Six 60-minute tapes. Transcribed by Colleen Sackheim. Audited for accuracy and edited for clarity by Revan Schendler. Sophia Smith Collection Voices of Feminism Oral History Project Bibliography: Smith, Barbara. Interview by Loretta Ross. Video recording, May 7–8, 2003. Voices of Feminism Oral History Project, Sophia Smith Collection. Footnote: Barbara Smith, interview by Loretta Ross, video recording, May 7, 2003, Voices of Feminism Oral History Project, Sophia Smith Collection, tape 3. Bibliography: Smith, Barbara. Interview by Loretta Ross. Transcript of video recording, May 7–8, 2003. Voices of Feminism Oral History Project, Sophia Smith Collection. Footnote: Barbara Smith, interview by Loretta Ross, transcript of video recording, May 7, 2003, Voices of Feminism Oral History Project, Sophia Smith Collection, pp. 64–67. Sophia Smith Collection Voices of Feminism Oral History Project ROSS: First of all, let’s just go through some very pragmatic information. I’d like you to give your name, address, your current phone number and your email address, for the record. 08:44 ROSS: Why don’t you start by telling me your year of birth, your place of birth and your educational background. SMITH: That’s right. The reason I did not mention my father is because I’ve never seen so much as a photograph of him. We were raised without our father and we were also raised without information about him. The only thing I know about him is his name and... SMITH: My mother’s name was Hilda Beall Smith. But Smith was also a family name within our family because one of my great aunts, one of my grandmother’s sisters [Aunt Rosa], who never married, her last name was Smith. So we grew up, you know, with supposedly our father’s name. But as I said, Smith was also a name within the family, a maiden Sophia Smith Collection Voices of Feminism Oral History Project Barbara Smith, interviewed by Loretta Ross Tape 1 of 6 Page 3 of 110 name so to speak. But in any event, one of my mother’s first cousins, who only died just a few years ago and who was known for being very outspoken and not, you know, necessarily going along with the program—as witnessed by the fact that she had a job once as a barmaid [laughs] scandal, scandal—we grew quite close, you know, as years went on. And she actually told me some things about my father and what had happened. My mother was a college graduate. She graduated from Fort Valley State College in the mid 40s. A little black college at that time— segregated black college—in Georgia. So that was the mid-1940s. Apparently, my father had been in WWII, or at least he was in the armed services. And given our birth date it was as the war was ending that they were together. But supposedly, according to this first cousin of my mother who I always called Aunt Isabel, he came to Cleveland with a ring. And he stayed at the Y. And apparently he did not pass muster with my grandmother and with the great aunts who were my mother’s aunts. And from what I understand, you know, they were basically disapproving of the marriage and so my mother ran away with him, which is highly romantic. And that may be why I’m such a romantic, or failed romantic, or whatever, you know. But that’s a very romantic kind of origin story. And I didn’t know it until a few years ago. And so they ran away together and then she returns. I don’t know where they went. But she returns. And she was looking extremely sad.