E. E. Smith 1852–1933
Duplin County, Duplin County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
E. E. Smith 1852 1933. President for over 40 years of State Colored Normal School (Fayetteville State University). U.S. minister to Liberia, 1888-90. Born 2 1/2 mi. SE.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
For more than four decades E. E. Smith led the State Colored Normal School in Fayetteville—today Fayetteville State University—shaping one of the South's key institutions for training Black teachers. He also served as U.S. minister to Liberia from 1888 to 1890, representing his country abroad. He was born about two and a half miles southeast of this marker.
Why it matters
His long stewardship built lasting Black educational institutions during an era of deepening segregation.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · E. E. Smith
Related events
- · Founding of Fayetteville State University
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ezekiel Ezra Smith Memorial
Fayetteville, NC
Ezekiel Ezra Smith (1852–1933) rose from the era of emancipation to become one of North Carolina's most influential Black educators, leading the state's normal school for training African American teachers in Fayetteville during the hard decades after Reconstruction. His life braided together many callings at once—teacher and school administrator, U.S. diplomat posted to Liberia, militia officer, and ordained minister—at a time when such doors rarely opened to Black Americans. The marker's phrase 'apostle of interracial goodwill' captures a man who spent his career building institutions and understanding across the color line in the Jim Crow South.
John Chavis
Raleigh, NC
Born free around 1762, John Chavis served in the Revolutionary War, studied for the ministry, and became one of the most respected teachers in North Carolina. In his Raleigh-area school he taught both free Black children and the sons of prominent white families, several of whom rose to high office. Tightening laws after 1831 eventually barred him from preaching and teaching to Black audiences.
St. Agnes Hospital
Raleigh, NC
Founded by Sarah Hunter, St. Agnes Hospital operated the first nursing school in North Carolina for African Americans from 1896 to 1961. In a segregated era that barred Black students from most training, it opened a professional path in medicine and gave Black communities skilled caregivers of their own. Its graduates served across the South for more than six decades.
St. Augustine's College
Raleigh, NC
Founded in 1867 by the Episcopal Church as a normal school for freedmen, St. Augustine's opened just two years after emancipation to train Black teachers in a South rebuilding after the Civil War. It grew steadily and became a four-year college in 1928. The school stands among the historically Black institutions that gave newly free people a path to literacy and leadership.