Daniel Smith was believed to have been the last living child of a formerly enslaved American.
- Died: October 19, 2022 (Who else died on October 19?)
- Details of death: Died at a hospital in Washington, DC of congestive heart failure and bladder cancer at the age of 90.
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A life steeped in history
When Smith was born in 1932, his father, Abram Smith, was around 70 years old. He had been born into slavery in 1862 or 1863, and though he was young when he was freed, he told stories of the violence toward Black people he witnessed in the years after the Civil War. Smith heard those stories and was inspired to become active in the civil rights movement as an adult. After serving as a medic in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he ran an adult literacy program and an antipoverty organization in Alabama. Later, he worked with the federally-funded Office of Economic Opportunity, developing neighborhood health centers in needy areas of the country. After his retirement, he volunteered as head usher at Washington National Cathedral, where he escorted presidents including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Smith traveled to Washington, DC in 1963 to attend the March on Washington, where he heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech; two years later, he marched with King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in support of voting rights. In 2009, Smith attended Barack Obama’s inauguration, and he jokingly called himself the “Black Forrest Gump” for his presence at so many key historical moments.
Notable quote
“People always say, ‘It can’t be done. You can’t do this. You can’t do that.’ I don’t believe that. If you tell me that, I’m going to do it.” —from a 2022 interview on “CBS Mornings”
Tributes to Daniel Smith
Full obituary: The Washington Post
