1. William H. "Smitty" Smith, Ed. D. is the founding executive director of the National Center for
Race Amity based at Wheelock College in Boston, Ma. Smith’s college career began in helping integrate
Division I football in the old Confederate South at Wake Forest College. He was profiled in the Sports
Illustrated cover story (November 7, 2005) as one of the pioneers who changed the face of college football. As
a community organizer in the Civil Rights Movement he was drafted into the US Army. After returning from
serving as a medic in Vietnam, where he was awarded two Bronze Star awards and the Combat Medic Badge,
he graduated with honors and earned his doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. As a member of the National Race Unity Committee of the Baha’is of the United States Smith
coordinated the national initiative “Neighborhood Conversations on Race: A Talk Worth Having” and later
developed “Campus Conversations on Race” (CCOR) and the handbooks which support those programs. He
established the Campus Conversations on Race College Network. CCOR was used as the model program for
racial dialogues in the PBS 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Freedom Rides.
Recipient of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award for The Invisible Soldiers: Unheard Voices which aired
nationally on PBS and the National Education Association Award for Outstanding Program for Television for
the nationally syndicated program The Teller and The Tale Halloween Special, Smith has produced numerous
programs for television broadcast and training purposes. In 2000 Dr. Smith led the successful initiative
culminating in the Joint Resolution of The Congress of The United States establishing the National Day of
Honor for African American and Other Minority World War II Veterans. This resolution Co-sponsored in the US
Senate by Senators Ted Kennedy (D) and Strom Thurman (R) and c0-sponored in the US House of
Representatives by JC Watts (R) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D) included an Oval Office signing ceremony with
President Bill Clinton. NCRA’s current film project is the documentary An American Story: Race Amity and The
Other Tradition projected to air on public television in 2016. See trailer at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UEROr7WQds. Dr. Smith was presented with the Key to City of
Greenville, S.C., his home town in 2005.
Through Smith’s leadership the National Center for Race Amity hosts the annual National Race Amity
Conference (http://raceamity.org) and organized the legislative initiative that culminated December 29, 2015
in Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signing into law Massachusetts Race Amity Day. The bill “Authorizes
Race Amity Day To Be Celebrated Annually The Second Sunday in June ” and directs the sitting Governor to
issue an annual proclamation to the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. NCRA is
also the lead organization in Towards E Pluribus Unum, an initiative calling for a Joint U. S. Congressional
Resolution to establish National Race Amity Day.
Under Smith’s leadership the National Center for Race Amity has developed an innovative game, Breaking It
Down Towards E Pluribus Unum. The game engages racial dialogues in a non-toxic manner. The game was
created to allow lay people to participate in racial dialogues without the oversight of “facilitators”. In October
of 2015 Smith was invited by the New York financial services firm Madison and Wall to serve as its chief
diversity consultant. He also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Healthcare Equity and Prosperity
Initiative, a collaboration of 100 Million Healthier Lives
(http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/100MillionHealthierLives/Pages/Overview.aspx and the Institute for
Alternative Futures.
wsmith@wheelock.edu http://ncra.wheelock.edu Tel. 617-879-2024 Cell 978-460-1631
May we all become
the better in us!