Al Smith: Biography from Answers.com

president (organization); activist

Personal Information

Born on July 27, 1946, in Atlanta, GA; daughter of Harvey B. (a dentist) and Lavada Johnson (a teacher) Smith.
Education: Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, bachelor's degree in sociology; Emory University, Atlanta, GA, master's degree in sociology; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, doctorate in education and social policy.
Memberships: Phelps-Stokes Fund, board of directors; National Summit on Africa, board member; Knoxville College, board of trustees; National Advisory Board of Reading is Fundamental; Black Leadership Forum; National Women's Business Council.

Career

INROADS/Atlanta and INROADS/Detroit, managing director, 1981-91; Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, director of development, 1991-94; The Atlanta Project of the Carter Center, director, 1994-98; National Council of Negro Women, president and chief operating officer, 1998-.

Life's Work

In February of 1998, Jane E. Smith took over as president and chief operating officer of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Founded in 1935 by educator Mary McLeod Bethune, the NCNW is a coalition of organizations and a political lobby group representing an array of African American women's organizations including National Women of Achievement, Trade Union Women of African Heritage, the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division, and 20 college sororities. The NCNW also has 250 community based sections of its own with 60,000 members. In total, the NCNW is connected to over four million women either through direct membership or membership in an affiliated organization. The mission of the NCNW is to advance opportunities and the quality of life for African American women, their families and their communities.

Smith succeeded Dorothy I. Height, a well-known civil rights activist, who was NCNW president for 40 years. Height now serves as chair of the NCNW executive committee and president emertia and continues to play an important role at the council. Smith took office with the intention of continuing Height's bold, proactive style. "Dr. Height is progressive, she's a risk taker. She steps out there on issues that she believes in. You don't tell Dr. Height what to do, she does what's right. I am the exactly same way," she told Junious R. Stanton of the New Pittsburgh Courier.

Smith was born and raised in Atlanta. Her father, Harvey Smith, was a dentist and her mother, Lavada Johnson Smith, taught kindergarten at local public schools. Smith received a bachelor's degree in sociology from Atlanta's Spelman College, then went on to earn a master's in sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, and a doctorate in education and public policy from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is eager to dispel the notion that the NCNW is a "ladies' club" that represents the interests of only educated, middle class African American women. "I belong to a whole lot of women's organizations that I won't name, but the closest that I've come to grass-roots identification is the National Council of Negro Women," Smith told Victoria Valentine of Emerge.

Active in Non-Profit Sector

Smith has spent much of her career in the non-profit sector. In 1981 to 1991 she was managing director of INROADS/Atlanta and INROADS/Detroit, career development organizations for minority students. Smith considers the development of leadership skills among young African American women as one of the most important goals of the NCNW, and believes that fostering attitudes of authority among young African American women is fundamental to achieving this goal. The NCNW has created the Dorothy I. Height Leadership Institute, which conducts workshops and other training programs for emerging and established leaders in national, community, and student organizations. "Now, I'm a Spelman College graduate, and I pick up the same sense in the Dorothy I. Height Leadership Institute as I do at Spelman College. Never at Spelman College did we say that we are trying to correct some numbers or fill spots that men now have. We produce women to be leaders for the century in this country, period. And the Dorothy I. Height Leadership Institute is the same way. We will produce women who will be leaders in this country, in the communities, in the states, across the country, and in doing so we will correct the disparity," Smith explained to Valentine.

In 1991, Smith became director of development at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta, where her duties included fundraising and strategic planning for domestic programs. She then served as director of The Atlanta Project (TAP), an urban initiative created by former President Jimmy Carter. As director of TAP, a program of the Carter Center, Smith worked to improve the quality of life on the neighborhood level and developed an agenda based on community and corporate partnerships.

Brought New Life to the NCNW

The appointment of Smith, who is more than 30 years younger than her predecessor, marked an effort by the NCNW to rejuvenate its image and bring fresh blood into the organization. "There is a generational difference and I bring something to the table," Smith told Stanton. Smith feels it is especially important for the NCNW to reach out to young women and point out to them the advances that can be made by collective action. Smith sees high-tech communication as key to reaching younger women. "These young women want to talk to each other on the Internet. They want to do e-mail. They want to learn about the council on the Internet. So, we are going to find a way to be progressive and current with technology to spread that word, harness the power, have impact on policy in the way that Mrs. Bethune could never foresee, really that Dr. Height could never conceive, that Jane Smith couldn't conceive. I had no idea when I finished college that we would be here where we are in terms of communication today. It's incredible. That's the challenge and that's the horizon that we must go...These young women need us as much as we need them. We need to make special efforts and we are making special efforts around the eighteen to about forty-five year old to get them. First of all they have so much more energy than I do. I need them," Smith explained to Stanton.

One of the priorities of the NCNW is to foster the economic empowerment of African American women. Although traditional civil rights initiatives such as affirmative action and racial integration are still important, Smith believes that economics should be at the forefront of the NCNW agenda. "Black women are indicating that they're more interested in owning their own and running their own [businesses]," she told Valentine. The NCNW has established the Economic and Entrepreneurial Development Center (EEDC), which provides women with the technical assistance they need to set up and run their own business. The EEDC also encourages economic development as a means of combating poverty among African American women. EEDC participants gain access to tested economic development program models, gather information about federal, state, and local resources available to minority communities, and are provided with mentoring and internship opportunities.

Smith told Valentine that the NCNW has made its own "statement of economic control" with its Fund for the Future, a campaign that was designed to raise $30 million to support NCNW programs, establish an endowment, and help pay for the NCNW's new headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Smith's appointment to the NCNW's executive board was due, in part, to her experience as a fund-raiser. She is also the first NCNW president to be appointed. Previous presidents were elected.

With regard to social and political issues, Smith does not believe that African American women need to put race ahead of gender. "One of the things that I had said to my feminist friends is that the African-American experience in this country brings so much to the feminist position that when I come into a room, I bring all of me as an African-American who is also a feminist...I think a woman is a feminist when she believes women can be equal participants in leadership positions that are related to quality of life in this country. I have decided that I will call myself a feminist. I am not afraid of that word," Smith told Valentine.

Smith serves on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Builders National Advisory Board. She also represents the NCNW on the National Women's Business Council. She is the mother of two sons and has three grandsons.

Awards

NAACP, Atlanta Chapter, Roy Wilkins Image Award, 1997.

Alfred Emanuel Smith

42nd Governor of New York
In office January 1, 1919 – December 31, 1920
Lieutenant	Harry C. Walker
Preceded by	Charles S. Whitman
Succeeded by	Nathan L. Miller
44th Governor of New York
In office January 1, 1923 – December 31, 1928
Lieutenant	George R. Lunn (1923–1924) Seymour Lowman (19257ndash;1926) Edwin Corning (1926–1928)
Preceded by	Nathan L. Miller
Succeeded by	Franklin D. Roosevelt

Born	December 30, 1873(1873-12-30) Manhattan, New York City, New York
Died	October 4, 1944 (aged 70) New York City, New York
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Manhattan, New York City, New York
Religion	Roman Catholic

Early life

Smith was born to Catherine Mulvihill and Alfred Emanuel Smith, Sr., a Civil War veteran and owner of a small trucking firm. Smith initially grew up on Oliver Street in the multiethnic Lower East Side of Manhattan, within sight of the Brooklyn Bridge as it was under construction. His four grandparents were Irish, German, Italian and English,^{[citation needed]} but Smith identified with the Irish American community and became its leading spokesman in the 1920s.

Smith was thirteen when his father died. At fourteen he dropped out of St. James School in Manhattan^[1] to help support the family. He never attended high school or college, and claimed he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, where he worked for $12 per week. An accomplished amateur actor, he became a notable speaker. On May 6, 1900, Alfred Smith married Catherine A. Dunn, with whom he had five children.^[2]

Political career

In his political career, Smith traded on his working-class beginnings, identifying himself with immigrants and campaigning as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany Hall political machine, particularly to its boss, "Silent" Charlie Murphy, he remained untarnished by corruption and worked for the passage of progressive legislation.^[2]

Smith's first political job was in 1895 as clerk in the office of the Commissioner of Jurors. In 1903 he was elected to the New York State Assembly. He served as vice chairman of the commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after a hundred workers died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation.

In 1911 the Democrats obtained a majority of seats in the State Assembly. Smith became chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In 1912, following the loss of the majority, he became the minority leader. When the Democrats reclaimed the majority in the next election, he was elected Speaker for the 1913 session. He became minority leader again in 1914 when the Republicans reclaimed the majority, and remained in that position until 1915, when he was elected sheriff of New York County. By now he was a leader of the Progressive movement in New York City and state. His campaign manager and top aide was Belle Moskowitz, daughter of Prussian-Jewish immigrants.^[2]

Al Smith with his wife.

After serving in the patronage-rich job of sheriff of New York County, Smith was elected President of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York in 1917. Smith was elected Governor of New York in 1918 with the help of Murphy and James A. Farley, who brought Smith the upstate vote. Smith is sometimes erroneously said to have been the first Irish-American elected governor of a state. There had been many, Catholics included, in other states, e.g. Edward Kavanagh of Maine. Nor was Smith the first Catholic to govern New York. Lord Thomas Dongan had governed the Province of New York in the 1680s, and Martin H. Glynn served from 1913-1914 after Governor William Sulzer was impeached.

In 1919, Smith gave the famous speech, "A man as low and mean as I can picture",^[3] making an irreparable break with William Randolph Hearst. Newspaperman Hearst, known for his notoriously sensationalist and largely (except on some economic matters) right-wing newspaper empire, was the leader of the populist wing of the Democratic Party in the city, and had combined with Tammany Hall in electing the local administration. Hearst had attacked Smith for starving children by not reducing the cost of milk.^[4]

Smith lost his bid for re-election in 1920, but was again elected governor in 1922, 1924 and 1926 with James A. Farley managing his campaign. As Governor, Smith became known nationally as a progressive who sought to make government more efficient and more effective in meeting social needs. Smith's young assistant Robert Moses built the nation's first state park system and reformed the civil service, later gaining appointment as Secretary of State of New York. During Smith's term New York strengthened laws governing workers' compensation, women's pensions, and children and women's labor with the help of Frances Perkins, soon to be President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Labor Secretary.

At the 1924 Democratic National Convention, Smith unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president, advancing the cause of civil liberty by decrying lynching and racial violence. Roosevelt made the nominating speech in which he saluted Smith as "the Happy Warrior of the political battlefield".^[2]

The 1928 election

Main article: United States presidential election, 1928

It was reporter Frederick William Wile who made the oft-repeated observation that Smith was defeated by "the three P's: Prohibition, Prejudice and Prosperity"^[5].

Al Smith giving a speech.

The Republican Party was still benefitting from the economic boom of the 1920s, which their presidential candidate Herbert Hoover pledged to continue. Historians agree^{[citation needed]} that the prosperity along with anti-Catholic sentiment made Hoover's election inevitable, although he had never run for office. He defeated Smith by a landslide in the 1928 election.

Smith was the first Catholic to win a major-party presidential nomination.^[6] (See also John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic elected U.S. President, and Charles O'Conor, first Catholic nominee for President.) Smith’s Catholic beliefs played a key role in his loss of the Election of 1928. Many feared that he would answer to the pope and not the constitution^{[citation needed]}. The people also criticized him for being a drunkard because of the stereotypes placed on Irish Catholics of the day.^[7] Another major controversial issue was the continuation of Prohibition. Smith was personally in favor of relaxation or repeal of Prohibition laws despite its status as part of the nation's Constitution, but the Democratic Party split north and south on the issue. During the campaign Smith tried to duck the issue with noncommittal statements.^[8]

Smith was an articulate exponent of good government and efficiency, as was Hoover. Smith swept the entire Catholic vote, which had been split in 1920 and 1924, and brought millions of Catholics to the polls for the first time, especially women. He lost important Democratic constituencies in the rural north and in southern cities and suburbs. He did carry the Deep South, thanks in part to his running mate, Senator Joseph Robinson from Arkansas, and he carried the ten most populous cities in the United States. Some of Smith's losses can be attributed to fear that as president, Smith would answer to the Pope rather than to the Constitution, to fears of the power of New York City, to distaste for the long history of corruption associated with Tammany Hall, as well as to Smith's own mediocre campaigning. Smith's campaign theme song, "The Sidewalks of New York", was not likely to appeal to rural folks, and his city accent on the "raddio" seemed slightly foreign. Although Smith lost New York state, his fellow Democrat Roosevelt was elected to replace him as governor of New York.^[9] James A. Farley left Smith's camp to run Franklin D. Roosevelt's successful campaign for Governor, and later Roosevelt's successful campaigns for the Presidency in 1932 and 1936.

Voter realignment

In long-term perspective Al Smith started a voter realignment. He helped launch the end of classless politics that ushered in the New Deal coalition of Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[10] As one political scientist explains, "...not until 1928, with the nomination of Al Smith, a northeastern reformer, did Democrats make gains among the urban, blue-collar, and Catholic voters who were later to become core components of the New Deal coalition and break the pattern of minimal class polarization that had characterized the Fourth Party System."^[11]

Finan (2003) says Smith is an underestimated symbol of the changing nature of American politics in the first half of the last century. He represented the rising ambitions of urban, industrial America at a time when the hegemony of rural, agrarian America was in decline. He was connected to the hopes and aspirations of immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews. Smith was a devout Catholic, but his struggles against religious bigotry were often misinterpreted when he fought the religiously inspired Protestant morality imposed by prohibitionists.

Opposition to Roosevelt and the New Deal

Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during the latter's governorship. They became rivals for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination. At the convention, Smith's animosity toward Roosevelt was so great, he put aside longstanding rivalries and managed to work with William McAdoo and William Randolph Hearst to block FDR's nomination for several ballots. This unlikely coalition fell apart when Smith refused to work on finding a compromise candidate, and instead maneuvered to make himself the nominee. After losing the nomination, Smith begrudgingly campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932.

At the start of the depression of the 1930s, Smith supported federal spending. Later, Smith broke with Roosevelt, who was elected president in 1932. Smith became critical of Roosevelt's New Deal policies and joined the American Liberty League, an anti-Roosevelt group. Smith believed the New Deal was a betrayal of good-government Progressive ideals, and ran counter to the goal of close cooperation with business.

The Liberty League was an organization that tried to rally public opinion against Roosevelt's New Deal. Conservative Democrats who disapproved of Roosevelt's New Deal measures founded the group. In 1934, Smith joined forces with wealthy business executives, who provided most of the league's funds. The league published pamphlets and sponsored radio programs, arguing that the New Deal was destroying personal liberty. However, the league failed to gain support in the 1934 and 1936 elections, and it rapidly declined in influence. The league was officially dissolved in 1940.^[12]

Smith's antipathy of Roosevelt and his policies was so great that he supported Republican presidential candidates Alfred M. Landon (in the 1936 election) and Wendell Willkie (in the 1940 election).^[2] Although personal resentment was a motivating factor in Smith's break with Roosevelt and the New Deal, Smith was consistent in his beliefs and politics. Finan (2003) argues Smith always believed in social mobility, economic opportunity, religious tolerance, and individualism. Strangely enough, Smith and Eleanor Roosevelt remained close. In 1936, while Smith was in Washington making a vehement radio attack on the President, she invited him to stay at the White House. To avoid embarrassing the Roosevelts, he declined.

Business life and later years

Smith golfing with baseball great Babe Ruth in Coral Gables, Florida (1930) – State Archive of Florida

After the 1928 election, Smith became the president of Empire State, Inc., the corporation which built and operated the Empire State Building. Construction for the building was commenced symbolically on March 17, 1930, per Smith's instructions. Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon when the world's tallest skyscraper—built in only 13 months—opened on May 1, 1931--May Day. As with the Brooklyn Bridge, which Smith witnessed being built from his Lower East Side boyhood home, the Empire State Building was a vision and an achievement constructed by combining the interests of all rather than being divided by interests of a few. Smith, like most New York City businessmen, enthusiastically supported World War II, but was not asked by Roosevelt to play any role in the war effort.^[2]

In 1939 he was appointed a Papal Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape, one of the highest honors the Papacy bestowed on a layman, which today is styled a Gentlemen of His Holiness.

Smith died at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital on October 4, 1944 of a heart attack, at the age of 70, broken-hearted over the death of his wife from cancer five months earlier. He is interred at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.^[13]

Namesake

Alfred E. Smith Building, a 1928 skyscraper in Albany, New York
Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing development in Lower Manhattan, near his birthplace
Governor Alfred E. Smith Park, a playground in the Two Bridges neighborhood in Manhattan, near his birthplace
Alfred E. Smith Recreation Center, a youth activity center in the Two Bridges neighborhood, Manhattan.
Governor Alfred E. Smith Sunken Meadow State Park, a state park on Long Island
PS 163 Alfred E. Smith School, a school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
PS 1 Alfred E. Smith School, a school in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a fundraiser held for Catholic Charities and a stop on the presidential campaign trail
Smith Hall, a residence hall at Hinman College, SUNY Binghamton.
Alfred E. Smith Vocational High School in the South Bronx.

Electoral history

United States presidential election, 1928

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate	Running mate's home state	Running mate's electoral vote
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Pct	Electoral vote	Running mate	Running mate's home state	Running mate's electoral vote
Herbert Hoover	Republican	California	21,427,123	58.2%	444	Charles Curtis	Kansas	444
Alfred E. Smith	Democratic	New York	15,015,464	40.8%	87	Joseph Taylor Robinson	Arkansas	87
Norman Thomas	Socialist	New York	267,478	0.7%	0	James H. Maurer	Pennsylvania	0
William Z. Foster	Communist	Illinois	48,551	0.1%	0	Benjamin Gitlow	New York	0
Other			48,396	0.1%	—	Other		—
Total			36,807,012	100%	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1928 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 28, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 28, 2005).

New York gubernatorial elections, 1918-1926

**1926 General election results**
Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote
Alfred E. Smith	Edwin Corning	Democratic	1,523,813	(52.13%)
Ogden L. Mills	Seymour Lowman	Republican	1,276,137	(43.80%)
Jacob Panken	August Claessens	Socialist	83,481	(2.87%)
Charles E. Manierre	Ella McCarthy	Prohibition	21,285	(0.73%)
Benjamin Gitlow	Franklin P. Brill	Workers	5,507	(0.19%)
Jeremiah D. Crowley	John E. DeLee	Socialist Labor	3,553	(0.12%)

**1924 General election results**
Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote
Alfred E. Smith	George R. Lunn	Democratic	1,627,111	(49.96%)
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.	Seymour Lowman	Republican	1,518,552	(46.63%)
Norman Mattoon Thomas	Charles Solomon	Socialist	99,854	(3.07%)
James P. Cannon	Franklin P. Brill	Workers	6,395	(0.20%)
Frank E. Passonno	Milton Weinberger	Socialist Labor	4,931	(0.15%)

Note: This was the last time the running mate of the elected governor was defeated, Democrat Smith having Republican Lowman as lieutenant for the duration of this term.

**1922 General election results**
Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote
Alfred E. Smith	George R. Lunn	Democratic	1,397,670	(55.21%)
Nathan L. Miller	William J. Donovan	Republican	1,011,725	(39.97%)
Edward F. Cassidy	Theresa B. Wiley	Socialist, Farmer-Labor	109,119	(4.31%)
George K. Hinds	William C. Ramsdell	Prohibition	9,499	(0.38%)
Jeremiah D. Crowley	John E. DeLee	Socialist Labor	9,499	(0.38%)

**1920 General election results**
Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote
Nathan L. Miller	Jeremiah Wood	Republican	1,335,878	(46.58%)
Alfred E. Smith	George R. Fitts	Democratic	1,261,812	(44.00%)
Joseph D. Cannon	Jessie Wallace Hughan	Socialist	159,804	(5.57%)
Dudley Field Malone		Farmer-Labor	69,908	(2.44%)
George F. Thompson	Edward G. Deltrich	Prohibition	35,509	(1.24%)
John P. Quinn		Socialist Labor	5,015	(0.17%)

List of candidates, (.pdf) in The New York Times of September 13, 1920

**1918 General election results**
Governor candidate	Running Mate	Party	Popular Vote
Alfred E. Smith	Harry C. Walker	Democratic	1,009,936	(47.37%)
Charles S. Whitman	Edward Schoeneck (Republican), Mamie W. Colvin (Prohibition)	Republican, Prohibition	995,094	(46.68%)
Charles Wesley Ervin	Ella Reeve Bloor	Socialist	121,705	(5.71%)
Olive M. Johnson	August Gillhaus	Socialist Labor	5,183	(0.24%)

Notes:

This was the first time women voted for governor of New York, and Alfred E. Smith was the first governor elected with more than 1 million votes. However given the much-expanded electorate, his historic total won him only a plurality of votes.
For comparison, in the New York Gubernatorial Election of 1916, Charles S. Whitman (whom Smith defeated in 1918) had won a 52.63% majority with only 850,020 votes.
The total ballots cast for governor was 2,192,970. Besides the votes for the above candidates, there were 43,630 blank votes, 16,892 spoilt votes, and 530 scattering votes.^[14]

In Fiction and Film

In Harry Turtledove's alternate history series Timeline 191, in which the Confederate States of America wins the American Civil War, Al Smith becomes the third Socialist President of the United States in 1936. In 1941, during his second term, the Confederacy invades the US, starting World War II. Smith is killed by a Confederate bomber in 1942 in his bunker in Philadelphia, then functioning as the nation's capitol.
Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt were filmed by Lee DeForest in his DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process during the 1924 Democratic Convention, which ran from June 21 to July 9. This film is now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.

References

^ About St. James School
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Slayton 2001
^ MacArthur, Brian (2000-05-01). The Penguin Book of 20th-Century Speeches. Penguin (Non-Classics). ISBN 0140285008.
^ Procter, Ben H. (2007). William Randolph Hearst. Oxford University Press US. pp. 85. ISBN 9780195325348.
^ reprinted 1977, John A. Ryan, "Religion in the Election of 1928," Current History, December 1928; reprinted in Ryan, Questions of the Day (Ayer Publishing, 1977) p.91
^ Hostetler, (1998).
^ DeGregorio, (1984).
^ Lichtman (1979)
^ Slayton 2001; Lichtman (1979)
^ Degler (1964)
^ Lawrence (1996) p 34.
^ The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents
^ http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/2006_smith.htm
^ Election result in NYT on December 31, 1918

Bibliography

Bornet, Vaughn Davis; Labor Politics in a Democratic Republic: Moderation, Division, and Disruption in the Presidential Election of 1928 (1964) online edition
Douglas B. Craig. After Wilson: The Struggle for Control of the Democratic Party, 1920-1934 (1992)online edition see Chap. 6 "The Problem of Al Smith" and Chap. 8 "'Wall Street Likes Al Smith': The Election of 1928"
Degler, Carl N. (1964). "American Political Parties and the Rise of the City: An Interpretation". Journal of American History 51 (1): 41–59. doi:10.2307/1917933. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(196406)51:1%3C41:APPATR%3E2.0.CO;2-%23&origin=historycoop.
DeGregorio, William A. (1984). The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. Dembner Books.
Eldot, Paula (1983). Governor Alfred E. Smith: The Politician as Reformer. Garland. ISBN 0824048555.
Finan, Christopher M. (2003). Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior. Hill and Wang. ISBN 0809030330.
Hostetler, Michael J. (1998). "Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question: The Rhetorical Legacy of the 1928 Campaign". Communication Quarterly 46.
Lawrence, David G. (1996). The Collapse of the Democratic Presidential Majority: Realignment, Dealignment, and Electoral Change from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Westview Press. ISBN 0813389844.

Lichtman, Allan J. (1979). Prejudice and the old politics: The Presidential election of 1928. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807813583. OCLC 4492475.
- Carter, Paul A. (1980). "Deja Vu; Or, Back to the Drawing Board with Alfred E. Smith". Reviews in American History 8 (2): 272–276. doi:10.2307/2701129. ISSN 0048-7511. ; review of Lichtman
Moore, Edmund A. (1956). A Catholic Runs for President: The Campaign of 1928. OCLC 475746. online edition
Neal, Donn C. (1983). The World beyond the Hudson: Alfred E. Smith and National Politics, 1918-1928. New York: Garland. pp. 308. ISBN 978-0824056582.
Neal, Donn C. (1984). "What If Al Smith Had Been Elected?". Presidential Studies Quarterly 14 (2): 242–248. ISSN 0360-4918.
Perry, Elisabeth Israels (1987). Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith. Oxford University Press. pp. 280. ISBN 0195044266.
Daniel F. Rulli; "Campaigning in 1928: Chickens in Pots and Cars in Backyards," Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, Vol. 31#1 pp 42+ (2006) online version with lesson plans for class
Slayton, Robert A. (2001). Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. Free Press. pp. 480. ISBN 978-0684863023. , the standard scholarly biography
Sweeney, James R. “Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90 (October 1982): 403–31.

Primary sources

Smith, Alfred, E. (1929). Campaign addresses of Governor Alfred E. Smith, Democratic Candidate for President 1928. Washington, D.C.: Democratic National Committee. ISBN 0404061176. OCLC 300555.
Alfred E. Smith. Progressive Democracy: Addresses & State Papers. (1928) online edition

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Al Smith

"Alfred E. Smith Dies Here at 70; 4 Times Governor". The New York Times. October 4, 1944. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1230.html.
"Happy Warrior Playground". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=10772.
"Governor Alfred E. Smith Park". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=6453.
"Al Smith". Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. http://www.nps.gov/elro/glossary/smith-al.htm.
Murphy, Kevin C.. "Lost Warrior: Al Smith and the Fall of Tammany". http://www.kevincmurphy.com/alsmith.htm.

New York Assembly
Preceded by Joseph Bourke	New York State Assembly, New York County 2nd District 1904–1915	Succeeded by Peter J. Hamill
Political offices
Preceded by Edwin A. Merritt	Minority Leader of the New York State Assembly 1912	Succeeded by Harold Hinman
Preceded by Edwin A. Merritt	Speaker of the New York State Assembly 1913	Succeeded by Thaddeus C. Sweet
Preceded by Harold Hinman	Minority Leader of the New York State Assembly 1914–1915	Succeeded by Joseph Callahan
Preceded by Frank L. Dowling	President of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York 1918	Succeeded by Robert L. Moran
Preceded by Charles S. Whitman	Governor of New York 1919 – 1920	Succeeded by Nathan L. Miller
Preceded by Nathan L. Miller	Governor of New York 1923 – 1928	Succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Party political offices
Preceded by John W. Davis	Democratic Party presidential candidate 1928	Succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democratic Party

Chairmen
of the DNC

Hallett • McLane • Smalley • Belmont • Schell • Hewitt • Barnum • Brice • Harrity • Jones • Taggart • Mack • McCombs • McCormick • Cummings • White • Hull • Shaver • Raskob • Farley • Flynn • Walker • Hannegan • McGrath • Boyle • McKinney • Mitchell • Butler • Jackson • Bailey • O'Brien • Harris • O'Brien • Westwood • Strauss • Curtis • White • Manatt • Kirk • Brown • Wilhelm • DeLee • Dodd/Fowler • Romer/Grossman • Rendell/Andrew • McAuliffe • Dean • Kaine

Presidential
tickets

Jackson/Calhoun • Jackson/Van Buren • Van Buren/R. M. Johnson • Polk/Dallas • Cass/Butler • Pierce/King • Buchanan/Breckenridge • Douglas/H. V. Johnson (Breckenridge/Lane, SD) • McClellan/Pendleton • Seymour/Blair • Greeley/Brown • Tilden/Hendricks • Hancock/English • Cleveland/Hendricks • Cleveland/Thurman • Cleveland/Stevenson I • W. J. Bryan/Sewall • W. J. Bryan/Stevenson I • Parker/H. G. Davis • W. J. Bryan/Kern • Wilson/Marshall • Cox/Roosevelt • J. W. Davis/C. W. Bryan • Smith/Robinson • Roosevelt/Garner • Roosevelt/Wallace • Roosevelt/Truman • Truman/Barkley • Stevenson II/Sparkman • Stevenson II/Kefauver • Kennedy/L. B. Johnson • L. B. Johnson/Humphrey • Humphrey/Muskie • McGovern/(Eagleton, Shriver) • Carter/Mondale • Mondale/Ferraro • Dukakis/Bentsen • Clinton/Gore • Gore/Lieberman • Kerry/Edwards • Obama/Biden

Parties by
State and
territory

State	Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming

Territory	District of Columbia • Puerto Rico

Democratic
National
Conventions
(List)

1832 (Baltimore) • 1835 (Baltimore) • 1840 (Baltimore) • 1844 (Baltimore) • 1848 (Baltimore) • 1852 (Baltimore) • 1856 (Cincinnati) • 1860 (Baltimore) • 1864 (Chicago) • 1868 (New York) • 1872 (Baltimore) • 1876 (Saint Louis) • 1880 (Cincinnati) • 1884 (Chicago) • 1888 (Saint Louis) • 1892 (Chicago) • 1896 (Chicago) • 1900 (Kansas City) • 1904 (Saint Louis) • 1908 (Denver) • 1912 (Baltimore) • 1916 (Saint Louis) • 1920 (San Francisco) • 1924 (New York) • 1928 (Houston) • 1932 (Chicago) • 1936 (Philadelphia) • 1940 (Chicago) • 1944 (Chicago) • 1948 (Philadelphia) • 1952 (Chicago) • 1956 (Chicago) • 1960 (Los Angeles) • 1964 (Atlantic City) • 1968 (Chicago) • 1972 (Miami Beach) • 1976 (New York) • 1980 (New York) • 1984 (San Francisco) • 1988 (Atlanta) • 1992 (New York) • 1996 (Chicago) • 2000 (Los Angeles) • 2004 (Boston) • 2008 (Denver)

Affiliated
organizations

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee • Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee • Democratic Governors Association • Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association • Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee • National Conference of Democratic Mayors • College Democrats of America • Young Democrats of America • Young Democrats of America High School Caucus • Democratic Leadership Council • 21st Century Democrats • America Votes • Blue Dog Democrats • Center for American Progress • Democrats Abroad • National Federation of Democratic Women • National Stonewall Democrats

History • Superdelegate

v • d • e Governors of New York

G. Clinton · Jay · G. Clinton · Lewis · Tompkins · Tayler* · D. Clinton · Yates · D. Clinton · Pitcher · Van Buren · Throop · Marcy · Seward · Bouck · Wright · Young · Fish · Hunt · Seymour · Clark · King · Morgan · Seymour · Fenton · Hoffman · J. Adams Dix · Tilden · Robinson · Cornell · Cleveland · Hill · Flower · Morton · Black · T. Roosevelt · Odell · Higgins · Hughes · White · J. Alden Dix · Sulzer · Glynn · Whitman · Smith · Miller · Smith · F. Roosevelt · Lehman · Poletti · Dewey · Harriman · Rockefeller · Wilson · Carey · Cuomo · Pataki · Spitzer · Paterson (*) denotes Acting

Speakers of the New York State Assembly

W Livingston · Bancker · Hathorn · Gelston · Lansing · Varick · Lansing · Verplanck · Watts · Watson · North · Verplanck · Ten Broeck · Osgood · Storm · Sheldon · McCord · Sheldon · Wilkin · North · Sanford · Ross · Sheldon · Van Rensselaer · Emott · Young · Cruger · Woods · German · Spencer · P Sharpe · Romaine · P Livingston · Goodell · Crolius · Young · Root · P Robinson · Root · Davis · C Livingston · Baker · Humphrey · E Livingston · Bradish · G Patterson · Porter · Chatfield · Davis · Litchfield · Seymour · Crain · Hasbrouck · Hadley · Elderkin · Pruyn · Dininny · Raymond · Varnum · Heartt · Ludlow · Pruyn · Littlejohn · O Robinson · Littlejohn · Alvord · Littlejohn · Raymond · Callicot · Depew (acting) · Callicot · Alvord · Hoskins · Tremain · Pitts · Hitchman · Younglove · Hitchman · H Smith · Cornell · Husted · McGuire · Husted · Sloan · Husted · Alvord · G Sharpe · C Patterson · Chapin · Sheard · Erwin · Husted · Cole · Husted · Sheehan · Bush · Sulzer · Malby · Fish · O'Grady · Nixon · Wadsworth · Frisbie · Merritt · A Smith · Sweet · Machold · McGinnies · I Steingut · Ives · Heck · Carlino · Travia · Weinstein (acting) · Duryea · S Steingut · Fink · Miller · Tallon (acting) · Weprin · Silver

Persondata
NAME	Smith, Alfred Emanuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Governor of New York
DATE OF BIRTH	1873-12-30
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH	1944-10-4
PLACE OF DEATH	New York City, New York

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Al Smith

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