Homer Smith Papers
Scope and Contents
Smith’s unpublished book, tentatively titled “Ethiopian Safari,” shed light on his years in Ethiopia after leaving Russia. Smith was Minister of Information in Addis Ababa from 1947 to 1961. There is also a poem by Jerry Parker who worked with Smith at Lyons and Carnahan on the south side of Chicago.
Dates
- 1957-1964
Creator
- Smith, Homer (author., Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restriction
Conditions Governing Use
Please consult staff to determine ability to reuse materials from collection
Biographical / Historical
Homer Smith was born in Mississippi and raised in Minnesota. He left America in 1932 and moved to the Soviet Union with the impression that life there would provide racial equality. Instead. he found that Soviet society only offered a ‘poverty-line equality.’ There, he held several jobs including post office clerk and Russian to English translator for various publishers. Under the pen name Chatwood Hall, Smith wrote syndicated columns for the Black press.
He married Maria Petrovna in 1937 and became a Russian citizen in 1938. Smith was a war correspondent on the German-Russian front. He was the only journalist on location when Haile Sellasie invaded Ethiopia in 1941. Smith worked for the Chicago Defender and Associated Press. He served as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Negro Press, the New York Times and the London Times during World War II. The 14 years that he lived in Russia became the basis of his autobiography Black Man in Red Russia published by Johnson Publishing in 1964. He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1946 to Ethiopia for 15 years. Homer Smith returned to the United States in 1963.
Later he went to work as a social studies editor at Lyons and Carnahan, a publishing company in Chicago. He died in the First Church of Deliverance Convalescent Home in Chicago on August 14, 1972.
Extent
1 Linear Feet (in 1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Homer Smith’s memoir, Black Man in Red Russia, was published and promoted by Johnson Publishing Company in 1964. The collection includes an unpublished manuscript by Smith highlighting his life in Ethiopia in the mid-twentieth century.
Arrangement
There are 3 series in this collection: Biography, Manuscript and Correspondence. The Biography and Correspondence series are in chronological order. The Manuscript of his unpublished book is in the author’s pagination order.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Marjul Collins [niece to Homer Smith] in 1994
- African American communists Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- African American journalists -- Soviet Union. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Clippings. Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Ethiopia -- Description and travel. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Manuscripts. Subject Source: TGM II, Genre and physical characteristic terms
- Personal correspondence. Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Poetry. Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Smith, Homer -- : Archives.
- Smith, Homer -- : Correspondence.
- Smith, Homer -- : Travel -- : Ethiopia.
Creator
- Smith, Homer (author., Person)
- Title
- Guide to the Homer Smith Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Beverly A. Cook
- Date
- May 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Repository Details
Part of the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection Repository
Woodson Regional Library
Chicago Public Library
9525 S. Halsted Street
Chicago IL 60628 United States
(312) 745-2080
harshcollection@chipublib.org