National Council of Negro Women Pays Tribute to Jane E. Smith
Dear NCNW Family,
I am writing to share the sad news that Dr. Jane E. Smith passed during the evening of December 12. Our sincere condolences go out to her sons, Clinton and Chad Browning, her grandchildren, other family members, friends and colleagues.
Dr. Smith and I were sister-friends, and so much of the road that she traveled has connections to my own journey. She graduated from and returned to serve in leadership positions at Spelman, a college where I had the enormous honor of serving as the president. As undergraduates, we both majored in sociology, and although we received our doctorates from different institutions — Dr. Smith from Harvard and I from Northwestern — we never strayed very far from higher education. Jane Smith received her master of arts degree from Emory, a university where I would teach some years later. I worked closely with Dr. Smith when she served as Director of the Atlanta Project, an initiative in her home town of Atlanta that was created by President Jimmy Carter. The National Council of Negro Women strongly connects me and each of you to Dr. Jane E. Smith.
In 1998, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height assumed the position of Chair and President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, and Dr. Jane E. Smith was appointed NCNW’s first employed President and Chief Operating Officer. It was during Dr. Smith’s presidency that NCNW established the Uncommon Height Awards Gala that is named after Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. And during Dr. Smith’s tenure at NCNW, the Dorothy Height Leadership Institute was established. Dr. Smith considered the development of leadership skills among young African American women as one of the most important goals of the NCNW which made her the ideal person to lead an effort at that time to make the organization more intergenerational.
On an occasion when Dr. Smith was reflecting on NCNW’s work in the areas of civil rights and women’s rights, she was asked if she was a feminist. She responded with these words.
One of the things that I had said to my feminist friends is that the AfricanAmerican experience in this country brings so much to the feminist position that whenI come into a room, I bring all of me as an African-American who is also a feminist……..I think a woman is a feminist when she believes women can be equal participants in leadership positions that are related to quality of life in this country. I have decided that I will call myself a feminist. I am not afraid of that word.
Among the many memories of Jane Smith that I will hold onto is how she commanded the attention of everyone in an audience when she gave a speech. I will never forget how she was a devoted mentor to so many young women, as she inspired them to soar to the height of their possibilities. And I will always remember Jane Smith as a committed activist for social justice.
As we mourn Dr. Jane Smith’s passing, let us find solace in the words of NCNW’s Founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, “death neither alarms nor frightens one who has had a long career of fruitful toil.” Join me in continuing to call the name of Jane E. Smith, our NCNW sister, for certainly the memory of her talents and contributions are a blessing to us all.
Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D.
National Chair & President, NCNW
