Damu Smith

Smith on March 12, 2003 at the Black Voices for Peace die-in event in front of The Washington Post building in Washington, D.C. Damu Amiri Imara Smith (1951 – May 5, 2006) was an American peace activist.

Early life and education Damu Smith was born in 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Sylvester and Vernice Smith. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a licensed practical nurse. Smith was raised with his two brothers and sister in the Carr Square Village housing project. A working-class family, they often struggled to make ends meet, sometimes receiving welfare or other government assistance. Smith has said that this experience developed in him a great sensitivity to the plight of low-income communities, and played a central role in shaping his views as an adult and as an activist. As a high school student, Smith had the chance to attend some of the Black Solidarity Day rallies in Cairo, Illinois, where he listened to speeches by Amiri Baraka, Nina Simone, and Jesse Jackson, and toured black neighborhoods where white supremacists had sprayed houses with gunfire, a sight that changed his life. As a freshman at St. John's University in Minnesota, and president of the Organization of Afro-American Students, Smith led a protest and takeover of the school’s administrative offices to demand a Black studies program. It was during that time that he changed his name to Damu Amiri Imara Smith, the first three words meaning ‘‘blood,’’ ‘‘leadership,’’ and ‘‘strength’’ in Swahili, respectively.

Career Smith on Columbus Day 2002 at the Witness for Peace picket line near the White House. In 1973, Smith moved to Washington D.C., where he began the next chapter in his lifelong mission of advocating for social justice in the United States and abroad.

Personal life Smith and his daughter in 2003 before the 40th Anniversary of the March of Washington. Smith died on May 5, 2006, of colon cancer at George Washington University Hospital. He was survived by his companion Adeleke Foster, a daughter, sister, and two brothers.

Awards and honors In 1986, Smith received the Malcolm X Community Service Award. He received the National Bar Association Community Service Award in 1989. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference presented Smith with an award in 1996 and in 1998, he received the St. James Citizen for Jobs and the Environment Award.