Clara Pearl Sowell Smith (1917-2009) was born in Sayerton, Alabama, to Nish and Florence Sowell. She moved to Cleveland, Ohio, with her family in 1927. She was a civil rights activist and social worker in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1950s and 1960s. She was president of the East 88th Street Club and the Wade Superior Neighborhood Association and co-founded the the Hough Area Council and the Bell Neighborhood Branch of Gannett Goodrich House.
A resident of the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland for twenty years, Smith was a member of the Hough Citizens Committee and helped to spearhead an early housing rehabilitation program there in 1960. As a member of the Hough Area Council, Smith directed a Summer Youth Program that provided cultural enrichment programs to Hough children. As the Charperson of the School Committee, she co-chaired a parent group that marched in protest of half-day classes due to overcrowding for area students in 1961. She also led a sit-in at the Cleveland Board of Education, demanding answers about academic and discipline problems in area junior and senior high schools. As president of the East 88th Street Improvement Club, she planned block parties and fundraisers for the United Negro College Fund.
Clara Smith was the first neighborhood caseworker aid to be assigned in the Cleveland War on Poverty program in Hough. She served at the Goodrich Hough Community Information Center, connecting families to health, education, and welfare services.
In 1966, Clara Smith attended the White House Civil Rights Conference entitled "To Fulfill These Rights." She met with President Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the conference. Upon her return to Cleveland, she campaigned for Carl B. Stokes in his successful campaign to become Cleveland's first African American mayor in 1967. She began working for Neighbors Organized for Action in Housing in 1968, eventually serving as Director of Neighborhood Services from 1970-1972.
Smith moved to Woodmere, Ohio, in 1972. She worked with the Woodmere Advisory Council on several projects to beautify Woodmere, and she volunteered at the Orange Senior Center. Smith was instrumental in founding an African American history program in the Orange public schools and served on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay Contest Committee at Eastview United Church of Christ. In 2005, Smith moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Clara Smith was married to Herman Smith. The couple had six children.
The Clara P. Smith Papers, 1959-1996 and undated, consist of a biography, case studies, certificates, correspondence, a genealogy, invitations, newspaper clippings, photographs, poetry, programs, reports, and song lyrics. Many of the documents are contained in a scrapbook created for Clara Smith in 2001.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, in the last half of the twentieth century. Those studying the history of the African American community in Cleveland, and the history of African American women in particular, will find this collection useful. The collection documents Clara Smith's efforts to solve problems that plagued the African American community on Cleveland's east side, particularly in the Hough neighborhood. These issues included overcrowding in Cleveland Public Schools and the resulting half days used to accommodate African American students in the early 1960s. The collection also documents Smith's leadership in the protest of the appointment of Alva Dittrick as director of Community Action for Youth, a demonstration project in the Hough neighborhood funded by the federal government in the 1960s. The collection also includes Smith's invitations to the White House Conference entitled "To Fulfill These Rights" in 1966 and the swearing-in ceremony of Cleveland mayor Carl Stokes. The collection document's Smith's work as a community activist, social worker, and Democratic campaign volunteer in Cleveland. Those studying the genealogy of the Sowell family of Cleveland, and poetry written by Clara Smith will also find this collection useful.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by document type and then chronologically.
All photographs not contained in the scrapbook have been removed to PG 610 Clara P. Smith Photographs.
The researcher should also consult PG 610 Clara P. Smith Photographs.
Processed by Margaret Burzynski-Bays in 2014.
Access to this collection is restricted. All researchers will be asked to make an appointment with the WRHS Curator of Manuscripts to discuss these restrictions and sign a "Case Files Access Form" before using this collection.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5264 Clara P. Smith Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Clara P. Smith in 2004.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.