Eric Ledell Smith (1949 – 2008) was an American historian and author. He served as Commissioner for the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...

. He was part of a presentation on

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

aired on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

. Smith was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. He was inspired by his grandmother, poet Florence Brown. At the time of his death he was working on the ''Trailblazers: Innovative African Americans in Pennsylvania History'' project writing profiles of historical figures. He wrote about subjects of Pennsylvania and African American history including books on

Bert Williams Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He is credited as being ...

, Black Opera, African American theaters, the

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is run by the state through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and was created to preserve and interpret the region ...

, civil rights movement in Pennsylvania, and an article on the Chester Race Riot.

Writings

*''Bert Williams : a biography of the pioneer Black comedian'' McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina (1992) *''Blacks in opera : an encyclopedia of people and companies, 1873-1993'' McFarland (1994) *''The protégé becomes a prophet : Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller'' Pennsylvania heritage (1974). Vol. 22, no. 2 (spring 1996) *''African Americans in Pennsylvania; Shifting Historical Perspectives, edited with Joe W. Trotter, Penn State University Press'' (1997) *"Researching the Underground Railroad in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania" (2000) *"Painted with pride in the U.S.A." PHMC, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (2001) *''African American theater buildings : an illustrated historical directory, 1900-1955'' McFarland (2003) *''The State Museum of Pennsylvania : a centennial history, 1905-2005'' (2005) *"The civil rights movement in Pennsylvania" Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (2006) * "The 1917 Race Riot in Chester, Pennsylvania". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 75 (2): 297–341 (2008)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ledell Eric 1949 births 2008 deaths American historians