Calvin L. Smith (1907-1968) was a pharmacist, coroner, and member of the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

from 1965 until his death in 1968. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, he represented the 24th District in the 74th and 75th sessions of the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...

. Born in

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...

, Smith moved to Chicago at a young age with his family. He became a pharmacist, receiving his pharmacy degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and then owning and operating a pharmacy with his father for the next 15 years. From 1951 to 1952, he was president of the Chicago Pharmacists Association. He served as chief pharmacist of the Cook County Jail, and was appointed deputy coroner of Cook County in 1961. An active participant in civil society, Smith was a member of the

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

fraternity, the

Prince Hall Masons Prince Hall Freemasonry is a branch of North American Freemasonry for African Americans founded by Prince Hall on September 29, 1784. There are two main branches of Prince Hall Freemasonry: the independent State Prince Hall Grand Lodges, most of ...

, and Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church. He served in the 4th ward Democratic Organization, as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the 15th precinct and as executive secretary of the ward organization. Smith was first elected to the Illinois House in 1964. The 1964 election was unprecedented in that the House's previous failure to approve a

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

plan caused all representatives to be elected statewide. As a result, all 118 House candidates on the statewide Democratic slate were elected. In the 1966 election, Smith contended with fellow first-time representative James A. McLendon to represent the 24th District, with neither able to consolidate support within the Democratic Party organization. During his two terms of office, his contributions included his support of legislation to compensate teachers based on workload, and to establish apprenticeship programs for African American students. In 1966, he was one of the four founding members of the study committee that gave rise to the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus. On June 29, 1968, during his second term, Smith died at Chicago's

Michael Reese Hospital Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest ...

of a heart attack.

Works cited

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Calvin L. African-American state legislators in Illinois Pharmacists from Illinois 20th-century American pharmacists Members of the Illinois House of Representatives Politicians from Springfield, Ohio Politicians from Chicago 1907 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American legislators 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century Illinois politicians