View source for Clay Smothers

{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Clay Smothers
|image = Clay Smothers.jpg
|caption=
|office= [[Texas House of Representatives|Texas State Representative for<br /> former District 33-G (Dallas County)]]
|party=[[Republican Party (U.S.)|Republican]] (before 1972, 1979–2004)<br>[[Democratic Party (U.S.)|Democratic]] (1972–1979)
|term_start=January 1977
|term_end=January 1981
|preceded=Richard S. Geiger
|succeeded=[[Steven D. Wolens]]
|birth_date={{birth date|1935|4|1}}
|death_date={{death date and age|2004|6|11|1935|4|1}}
|death_place=
|death_cause=
|resting_place=
|birth_place=[[Malakoff, Texas]], U.S.
|occupation=[[Educator]]<br />
[[Radio]] personality<br />
Storekeeper<br />
Operator of orphanage
|spouse=Barbara Smothers
|alma_mater=[[Prairie View A&M University]]
}}
'''Claiborne Washington''' "'''Clay'''" '''Smothers''' (April 1, 1935  &ndash; June 11, 2004) was an American politician and commentator. He was a member of the [[Texas House of Representatives]] from the former District 33-G in [[Dallas County, Texas|Dallas County]] who served from 1977 to 1981. Though elected as a [[Conservative (politics)|conservative]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]],<ref>[[Alwyn Barr]], ''Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528-1995'', 2nd ed., [[Norman, Oklahoma|Norman]]: [[University of Oklahoma Press]], 1996, p. 232; {{ISBN|080612878X}}</ref> Smothers switched to [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] affiliation on December 17, 1979, near the end of the first year of the first administration of [[Bill Clements]], first Republican [[governor of Texas]] since [[Reconstruction era in the United States|Reconstruction]].<ref name=lrltx>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=587&searchparams=chamber=~city=~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=~first=Claiborne~gender=~last=Smothers~leaderNote=~leg=~party=~roleDesc=~Committee=|title=Clay Smothers|publisher=Legislative Reference Library of Texas|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref>
However, Smothers was a Republican in 1970, when he had run unsuccessfully in District 12 for the Texas House; he was defeated by the Democrat Sam Coats. In that same election [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] lost the [[U.S. Senate]] race to Democrat [[Lloyd Bentsen]], and Republican gubernatorial nominee [[Paul Eggers]] failed to unseat [[Preston Smith (governor)|Preston Smith]] in their second consecutive match.<ref name=smothersbio/>
==Background==
Smothers was the fourth of five children born and reared in [[Malakoff, Texas|Malakoff]] in [[Henderson County, Texas|Henderson County]] in [[East Texas]], where his parents, James William Smothers (1896–1975) and the former Alice Olenza Wingfield (1899–2000), ran the St. Paul Industrial Training School, the only African-American [[orphanage]] and school in Texas that operated without federal funds. The institution housed many homeless youth over the years.<ref name=smothersbio>{{cite web|url=http://mln.stparchive.com/Archive/MLN/MLN10021970P10.php|title=Doris Eastman Harris, "Smothers ... New Voice of a Silent Majority", October 2, 1970|publisher=The Malakoff News|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref> It remains operational.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stpaulscholarship.org/our_history.html|title=History of St. Paul Industrial Training School|publisher=stpaulscholarship.org|accessdate=October 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302150002/http://www.stpaulscholarship.org/our_history.html|archive-date=March 2, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Smothers graduated from the [[historically black]] [[Prairie View A&M University]] in [[Waller County, Texas|Waller County]], Texas. He and his wife, Barbara, lived for several years in [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], [[Illinois]], where he was a teacher and special law-enforcement officer involved in the control of youth [[gang]]s. He served on [[mayor of Chicago|Mayor]] [[Richard J. Daley]]'s Commission on Youth Welfare. He and Barbara returned to Texas in 1964. He first worked in the St. Paul orphanage but in the late 1960s moved to Dallas, where he operated a grocery store in the [[Oak Cliff|South Oak Cliff]] neighborhood. He became news editor of the Dallas radio station [[KHVN|KNOK-AM]],<ref name=smothersbio/> from which he had to step down while running for office. He also wrote newspaper columns<ref name=medal/> highlighting the theme of Americanism and opposition to what he called "extremist groups on the left and right."<ref name=smothersbio/>
==Political life==
===National===
In 1972, Smothers surfaced to national attention as an alternate delegate for then [[governor of Alabama|Governor]] [[George Wallace]] at the [[1972 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]].<ref>Jane Lee, "Black Delegate for Wallace to Speak Here", ''Lawrence, Kansas, Daily Journal'', November 1, 1972, p. 1</ref> Without any expectation of success, Smothers nominated himself for [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] to run with nominee [[George McGovern]] but polled  support from only seventy-four delegates, a number still more than twice that received by [[governor of Georgia|Governor]] [[Jimmy Carter]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], the [[U.S. presidential election, 1976|1976]] Democratic presidential nominee who was not an announced candidate for vice-president.<ref>James W. McCulla, "It's Eagleton of Missouri in 2nd Spot", ''[[Milwaukee Journal]],'' July 14, 1972, pp. 1-2</ref>
Smothers warned the national Democrats meeting in [[Miami Beach, Florida|Miami Beach]], [[Florida]], that Wallace, who had been the victim of an assassination attempt in [[Maryland]] several weeks earlier, held the allegiance of 20 million voters and had to be recognized. Smothers did not endorse either McGovern or Republican [[Richard M. Nixon]] but instead supported the [[U.S. presidential election, 1972|1972]] [[American Independent Party]] ticket of [[U.S. Representative]] [[John G. Schmitz]] of [[California]] and [[Thomas J. Anderson (author)|Thomas J. Anderson]] of [[Tennessee]]. AIP had been Wallace's party in the 1968 presidential election.  Schmitz and Anderson polled more than 1 million popular votes but carried no state. The [[liberal (politics)|liberal]] author [[Hunter S. Thompson]] ridiculed Smothers as "some black [[Stepin Fetchit]]-style Wallace delegate from Texas."<ref>Jann S. Wenner, ed., [[Hunter S. Thompson]], ''Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 232; {{ISBN|9781439165959}}</ref>
===State===
Smothers lost the runoff election for Dallas City Council Place 8 to [[Lucy Patterson]] in 1973.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tatum |first=Henry |date=April 18, 1973 |title=CCA Candidates Win |pages=1 |work=Dallas Morning News |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=EANX&req_dat=0F10BFFB12A51BCE&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A0F99DDB671832188%2540EANX-0FCA9E50C9DC9BD0%25402441791-0FCA9E50D077BCF0%25400-0FCA9E52A925D884%2540CCA%252BCandidates%252BWin |access-date=February 23, 2023}}</ref> The large number of Black voters at the polls are partially credited for Patterson's win, especially in [[South Dallas]] and Southeast [[Oak Cliff]]. Officials speculated that Black voters were responding to Smothers longstanding anti-[[Desegregation busing|busing]] position.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tatum |first=Henry |date=April 19, 1973 |title=Black Vote Influential |pages=1 |work=Dallas Morning News |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=EANX&req_dat=0F10BFFB12A51BCE&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A0F99DDB671832188%2540EANX-0FCA9DF108DB0F23%25402441792-0FCA9DF2BA31795B%2540100-0FCA9DF8E4CE207F%2540Black%252BVote%252BInfluential. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023. |access-date=February 23, 2023}}</ref>
Smothers was elected to the first of his two terms in the Texas legislature in 1976, when Jimmy Carter became the thus far last Democrat to win the [[United States Electoral College|electoral vote]]s of Texas. After some four months in office, the ''[[Austin American-Statesman]]'' reported on May 20, 1977, that Smothers had been named "Freshman of the Year" of the 65th legislative session by his colleagues.  However, that same year ''[[Texas Monthly]]'' magazine named him to its "Ten Worst List" of legislators.<ref name="lrltx" />
In 1979, Smothers opposed the bill to create [[Juneteenth]] as a Texas state holiday observing the end of [[slavery]] in the state. Smothers belittled the observance as mere "ceremoniously grinning and bursting watermelons on the Capitol grounds" and "a fraudulent holiday".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/independence-day/page/0/1|title=Anne Dingus, "Once a Texas-only holiday marking the end of slavery, Juneteenth is now celebrated nationwide with high spirits and hot barbecue," June 2001|magazine=[[Texas Monthly]]|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref>
In 1978, Smothers was awarded the American Patriots Medal by [[Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge|Freedoms Foundation]] of [[Valley Forge, Pennsylvania|Valley Forge]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He was selected from several thousand nominees by a panel of thirty persons, one-third of whom were justices of state supreme courts. The previous winner of the medal had been the [[Western (genre)|western]] singer, actor, and businessman [[Gene Autry]].<ref name=medal>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=587&searchparams=chamber=~city=~countyID=0~RcountyID=~district=~first=~gender=~last=Smothers~leaderNote=~leg=~party=~roleDesc=~Committee=#bio|title=66th Legislature, Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary|publisher=lrl.state.tx.us|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref>
Smothers supported [[Jonas Savimbi]] of the [[National Union for the Total Independence of Angola]] in the [[Angolan Civil War]] in the middle 1970s and accused the [[Communist Cuba]]n forces, which fought on the side of the [[People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola]] government against Savimbi, of atrocities.<ref name=medal/>{{failed verification|date=November 2013}}
In 1980, Smothers ran as a Republican on the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-Bush ticket for the [[United States House of Representatives]] in [[Texas's 24th congressional district]], but he lost to the Democratic incumbent [[Martin Frost]]. Smothers ran as an opponent of [[abortion]] and polled nearly 39 percent of the vote in the district, since reconfigured through [[redistricting]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=29954|title=Smothers, Claiborne W. "Clay"|publisher=ourcampaigns.com|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/smithberger-smyser.html#835.32.98|title= Smothers, Clay |publisher= [[The Political Graveyard]] |accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref>
==Later years==
After his legislative service, Smothers resumed the management of the St. Paul Industrial Training School in Malakoff. In January 1982, he was briefly jailed for [[aggravated assault]] after an altercation at a bait stand in [[Caney City, Texas|Caney City]] near Malakoff. He told law enforcement officers that he had just returned from [[Mayo Clinic]] in [[Rochester, Minnesota|Rochester]], [[Minnesota]], where he had undergone surgery.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1032&dat=19820114&id=PAszAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cRMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=761,1198377|title=John H. Cox, "Clay Smothers jailed following altercation"|publisher=Malakoff News, January 21, 1982, p. 10A|accessdate=October 11, 2013}}</ref>
Smothers died in 2004 at the age of sixty-nine, and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Park in Dallas, TX.  The names of his children are unknown except for Clay, II, who died of lung cancer at the age of fifty-five in 2013; and Kinney Lee Fields, a 2016 Republican  primary candidate for the District 3 seat on the Dallas County Commissioners Court
.
{{Portal bar|Biography|Texas|United States|Politics|Conservatism|Education|Journalism|Radio}}
==References==
{{reflist}}19.
Obituary.  "Claiborne Washington Smothers."  The Dallas Morning News, June 15, 2004.{{S-start}}
{{s-par|us-tx-hs}}
{{succession box
| before=Richard S. Geiger
| title=[[Texas House of Representatives|Texas State Representative for <br />the former District 33-G (Dallas County)]]
| years=1977&ndash;1981
| after=[[Steven D. Wolens]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smothers, Clay}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American legislators]]
[[Category:21st-century African-American politicians]]
[[Category:African-American radio personalities]]
[[Category:African-American state legislators in Texas]]
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Texas]]
[[Category:Journalists from Texas]]
[[Category:Members of the Texas House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dallas]]
[[Category:People from Henderson County, Texas]]
[[Category:People from Oak Cliff, Texas]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:Politicians from Chicago]]
[[Category:Prairie View A&M University alumni]]
[[Category:Radio personalities from Dallas]]
[[Category:Schoolteachers from Illinois]]
[[Category:Texas Democrats]]
[[Category:Texas Republicans]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1980 United States elections]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1970 United States elections]]
[[Category:Black conservatism in the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century Texas politicians]]