The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ROBIN ANGELA SMITH Interviewed by: Mark Tauber Initial interview date: February 6, 2019 Copyright 2019 ADST INTERVIEW Q: So, today is February 6 and we are beginning our interview with Robin Smith. And Robin, anything you want to say before we start? SMITH: Well first, thank you very much for having me here. This is something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I retired in 2017, and it’s only now that I’ve had a chance to return to the State Department – to the Foreign Service Institute campus – to give my oral history. Over the span of my 31-year career, I occupied a front-row seat to many momentous events, and now – thanks to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training – I have an opportunity to share the rich experiences I’ve had as a Foreign Service officer. Perhaps through this interview, readers will come to understand the vital work that we do. Q: Very good. Where and when were you born? SMITH: I was born in Washington, D.C., in 1958. At the time, my father, William Smith, had finished law school at Georgetown University. I went to Georgetown too, as an undergraduate student. In fact, I’m trying to figure out whether we are the first father/daughter African American alumnae of the university since my father was one of the first African Americans to graduate from the Jesuit institution. I asked the university to check this out. Q: I heard about Georgetown University’s Memory Project, a way to atone for when Georgetown sold 272 slaves to plantations in Louisiana.. SMITH: Yes, it was an especially sordid moment for a university with a moral mission. Georgetown is trying its best to make amends through the Memory Project, I believe. So, I was born in D.C. and, as I said, my father was a lawyer. So, my understanding is that as a black person it was difficult for him to get a job with a private law firm in the 1950s. Fortunately, the government was hiring people of color. He applied for a job as a lawyer with the Defense Department, or DOD, and moved the family to California. I must have been about a year old when we left D.C. 1 Q: Wow. SMITH: Yes, he began working at Norton Air Force Base and then relocated to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Q: I see. SMITH: Vandenberg Air Force Base is near Santa Maria, which is where my family settled and where I spent most of my childhood until the age of 13. Q: Okay. So, now, take a second; tell me a little bit more about your family, other siblings, you know, was your mother working and so on. SMITH: Oh, sure. I have three brothers, two older, one is younger by about nine years. My mother, Gloria Smith, was a much beloved high school teacher at the high school in Santa Maria. She was head of the English department there before leaving teaching and going into counseling. Subsequently, she started working at Cal Poly University. In 1973, there was another big transition. My father got a job in St. Louis, Missouri. Q: Oh, so you moved from Vandenberg to St. Louis? SMITH: Yes. Q: Wow, okay. SMITH: Yes, my father was employed by the Defense Mapping Agency in St. Louis. And so, we picked up and moved out there. That’s where I went to high school, University City High School. Q: A question - did you live on the base when you were in Vandenberg? SMITH: No. Q: Okay. SMITH: No, never on the base. We always lived off-base. As a civilian, I don’t think my father had privileges to live on base. Q: Were there any particular memories from when you were in the Vandenberg area that, you know, kind of stuck with you since it was elementary school and I guess middle school that you attended? What was that like for you, growing up in that part of California, you know, in the early ‘60s and so on? SMITH: Yes. Well, it was an interesting time, I should say. It was, the ‘60s and the hippie culture prevailed. However, I was too young to really be a part of that. 2 Q: Just as a quick aside, I grew up very close to New York City and we would go in to the city periodically. Of course, there was plenty of hippie activity there, and it was, for a child, fascinating because it was colorful and crazy and circuslike, but I had no way of having any entry into because by the time I was old enough it had already ended. SMITH: Yes. Well, what’s interesting is that the decade of the 60s was a hot bed for civil rights protest and reform, but it touched us in California in different ways than in the Deep South or parts of the North. Later in our interview, I’ll talk about the role of my great-aunt in the civil rights movement. But first, let me tell you that there is a photo of my great-aunt in Michelle Obama’s autobiography. Q: Oh, for heavens sakes. SMITH: -with Barack Obama, President Obama and Michelle Obama. Q: This picture was taken during the anniversary the Selma march? SMITH: Yes, that’s right. The50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march. Very cool, huh? I was there too. President Obama invited President Bush and former First Lady, Laura Bush. There was much unity and goodwill on all sides. The point I was trying to make is that I was in California during this turbulent period. The start of my awareness of what was going on in the South and other parts of the country was by watching television coverage of Bloody Sunday and my great-aunt. Q: What was her name? SMITH: Amelia Boynton Robinson. B-O-Y-N-T-O-N. She was a leader of the civil rights movement in Selma. When Bloody Sunday happened, I remember my parents calling relatives on the East Coast, trying to find out what was going. I was still very young to really comprehend a lot. When we would periodically take road trips, or an occasional flight to the East Coast, I would be in my grandmother’s basement, the sister of Aunt Amelia, and see news clippings and photos of Bloody Sunday. Indeed, the photos, the news of Bloody Sunday, was spread all over the world. A photo of her on the ground overcome with tear gas and a Sherriff’s deputy with his billy club standing over her is quite iconic. That was the beginning of my consciousness of race relations in the U.S. My father was also active in pursuing social justice in the Santa Maria area. My understanding was that a local club discriminated against black people; I don’t think you could be a member of that club in those days. Q: Interesting. SMITH: So, he sued to get the club’s liquor license revoked. Q: And being an attorney, he knew how to do that. 3 SMITH: Yes. Q: Well, did they settle in the end? Did the club settle-? SMITH: I can’t remember. Probably, I would think, probably. Q: Fascinating. SMITH: Yes. Q: So, once again, just before we go with you to Kansas City because of course- SMITH: St. Louis. Q: I’m sorry, St. Louis. Since you have some famous relatives, have you also done some of your ancestry and looked back as far as you can? SMITH: Oh, yes. Q: Because that would be interesting to talk about before we move on with the rest of your life. SMITH: In fact, I have talked about my family during my assignments in the Foreign Service. In my remarks I would highlight three family members, first beginning with Robert Smalls from South Carolina, whose claim to fame is when he commandeered the USS Planter and delivered the Confederate steamer to the North. Q: Yes, I remember that story. SMITH: Yes, Robert Smalls is my great-great uncle. Interestingly, President Trump mentioned Robert Smalls in his first Black History Month proclamation. The proclamation dovetailed very nicely with my remarks that year. Smalls was founder of the Republican Party in South Carolina, and one of the first black members of Congress. He became a very famous person at that time, a cause célèbre. One thing I should note is that he met President Lincoln and subsequently Lincoln allowed the formerly enslaved men to join the Union army. Q: Right. SMITH: And some historians say that Lincoln’s decision was in part due to Robert Smalls and his exploits. Then in my formal remarks on my family to foreign audiences, I fast forward 100 years to the late ‘50s, early ‘60s when my cousin, who’s still alive, Bruce Boynton, had his claim to fame. He was at Howard Law School, was traveling south during his school break, and decided to go to a whites-only restaurant at the train station to have a meal. He was arrested and his case went all the way to the Supreme Court, a case that was argued by Thurgood Marshall, by the way. 4 Q: That’s amazing. SMITH: Yes, cousin Bruce has some fascinating vignettes that he shared with me that I would share with my audiences about the court case and the discussions he had with his lawyers. Not too many people remember the case; but many remember the Freedom Rides.