Maxine Atkins Smith

Maxine Atkins Smith. . The only woman leader of the struggle to desegregate a major Southern city, Maxine Atkins Smith was an academic and activist who was called the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis.” Born on October 31, 1929, she finished high school at 15, graduated from Spelman College, received a master's degree from Middlebury College, and taught French for several years., Denied admission to Memphis State University in 1957, she began a life-long battle against racial discrimination, and she worked for the political empowerment of African Americans. As executive secretary of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP from 1962 to 1995, she organized marches, sit-ins of public facilities, and boycotts of stores and restaurants. Under her leadership, the organization received the Thalheimer Award as the most outstanding branch in the country for 31 years, The NAACP was nonpartisan and it was instrumental in increasing Black voter registration and organizing get-out-the-vote campaigns. Personally, as a member of Shelby County Democratic Club and the Tennessee Voters Council, she helped progressive White and African-Americans win election to local, state and national public offices. , She joined the 1963 March on Washington, served on the coordinating committee of the 1968 Sanitation Strike, and led a series of Black Monday demonstrations against the Memphis School Board in 1969. Ironically, she became the first Black person elected to the school board in 1971, serving for 24 years and as board president for two terms. In 1994 the governor appointed her to the Tennessee Board of Regents. , Recipient of over 160 awards and three honorary degrees, she was the subject of a television documentary, Maxine, and a biography, Maxine Smith's Unwilling Pupils: Lessons Learned in Memphis's Civil Rights Classrooms. Until her death on April 26, 2013, she had a profound impact on education and the civil rights struggle in Memphis.