Hoke Smith
Smith in 1912
United States Senator fromGeorgia
In office November 16, 1911 – March 3, 1921
Preceded by	Joseph M. Terrell
Succeeded by	Thomas E. Watson
58thGovernor of Georgia
In office July 1, 1911 – November 16, 1911
Preceded by	Joseph Mackey Brown
Succeeded by	John M. Slaton
In office June 29, 1907 – June 26, 1909
Preceded by	Joseph M. Terrell
Succeeded by	Joseph Brown
19thUnited States Secretary of the Interior
In office March 6, 1893 – September 1, 1896
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	John Willock Noble
Succeeded by	David R. Francis
Personal details
Born	Michael Hoke Smith (1855-09-02)September 2, 1855 Newton, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	November 27, 1931(1931-11-27) (aged 76) Atlanta,Georgia, U.S.
Resting place	Oakland Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Birdie Cobb
Signature

Michael Hoke Smith (September 2, 1855 – November 27, 1931) was an American attorney, politician, andnewspaper owner who served asUnited States secretary of the interior (1893–1896),58th governor of Georgia (1907–1909, 1911), and aUnited States senator (1911–1920) fromGeorgia. He was a leader of theprogressive movement in the South and awhite supremacist and segregationist who successfully campaigned to further disenfranchise African American voters in 1907.^[1]

Smith was born inNewton, North Carolina, on September 2, 1855, to Hildreth H. Smith, president ofCatawba College, and Mary Brent Hoke.^[2] When Smith was 2 years old, his father accepted a position on the faculty of theUniversity of North Carolina and moved the family toChapel Hill. Smith attendedPleasant Retreat Academy and was primarily educated by his father. Smith was too young to participate in the Civil War, but his uncle, Confederate GeneralRobert Hoke, fought in the war. In 1868, when the elder Smith lost his position at the university, he moved the family toAtlanta, Georgia, the city that would remain the younger Smith's home for the rest of his life.^[2] Smith did not attend law school, butread for the law in association with an Atlanta law firm. He passed thebar examination in 1873, at age seventeen, and became alawyer in Atlanta.^[2]

Smith maintained a small office in the James building downtown. His practice began to grow when he began to argue injury suits.^[3] As his practice grew, he brought in his brother Burton in 1882, also excellent in front of juries, and they worked together for over 10 years.^[4] Their main clients were the manyrailroad workers injured on the job; three-quarters of the cases they took involved personal injury and they won the bulk of them.^[5]

Smith served as chairman of theFulton County and State Democratic Conventions and was president of the Atlanta Board of Education. In 1887, Smith bought theAtlanta Journal. His strong support in theJournal forGrover Cleveland during the1892 presidential election garnered Cleveland's attention and led to a top-level patronage appointment.

Smith was appointed asSecretary of the Interior by Cleveland in 1893.^[6] He worked hard to rightland patents previously obtained by the railroads, for rationalization of Indian affairs and for the economic development of theSouth. A staunch defender of Cleveland and hissound money pro-gold anti-silver financial policy, Smith campaigned throughout the country in 1896 for Cleveland candidates.^[7] WhenWilliam Jennings Bryan was selected at the1896 Democratic National Convention in opposition to all of Cleveland's main policies, Smith denounced Bryan's silver policy but supported him as his party's candidate in theJournal. Smith resigned his cabinet post to protect Cleveland.^[8]

Smith returned to Atlanta and resumed his lucrative law practice netting around $25,000 per year and slowly rebuilt his local reputation.^[9] In April 1900 he sold his interests in theJournal and tried many other investments but the only ones that did well were real estate in the Atlanta area. He was instrumental in organizing the North Avenue Presbyterian Church (which still stands) and was re-elected to theAtlanta Board of Education.^[10]

Smith allied himself with Bryan's vice presidential candidate,PopulistTom Watson, one of Georgia's most influential politicians. With Watson's support, he embraced Black disfranchisement calling the races "different, radically different" and supporting separate taxes for Black and white schools calling it "folly to spend the money of white men to give negroes a book education."^[11] Watson's support helped Smith win the governorship in 1906. Smith's demagogic diatribes on behalf ofwhite supremacy in the election are considered a primary cause of the1906 Atlanta Race Riot.^[12] As governor Smith presided over various reforms affecting areas such as social welfare,^[13] education,^[14] and working hours.^[15] He promoted severalJim Crow laws in a constitutional amendment that required either a literacy test or property ownership for voting, and then adding agrandfather clause exemption for poor whites. This constitutional amendment effectively disenfranchised black Georgians. Smith also supported railroad reform and election reform. After losing the support of Watson,^[16] he was defeated in the next election byJoseph M. Brown. Smith was re-elected as governor in 1911.

In 1911 while still governor, he was chosen by the Georgia General Assembly to fill out the term of United States SenatorAlexander S. Clay. Smith won re-election in 1914, but was defeated by Tom Watson in 1920. Afterward, Smith practiced law inWashington, D.C., and Atlanta.

Smith died in 1931 and is buried inOakland Cemetery in Atlanta, the last surviving member of the Cleveland Cabinet and the second Cleveland Administration.

Hoke Smith High School (1947–1985) once stood at 535 Hill Street SE, in Atlanta. DuringWorld War II, aLiberty ship was named theSS Hoke Smith.^[17] The Hoke Smith Annex Building on the campus of theUniversity of Georgia was named in honor of the late senator.^[18]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHoke Smith.

• Grantham, Dewey W.Hoke Smith and the politics of the New South (LSU Press, 1967). The major scholarly biography
• Grantham, Dewey W. "Hoke Smith: Progressive Governor of Georgia, 1907-1909".Journal of Southern History (1949) 15 (4): 423–440. doi:10.2307/2198381. JSTOR 2198381.
• Woodward, C. Vann.The Strange Career of Jim Crow (2nd edition, Oxford University Press: 1966) pp. 86–91.

• Vanishing Georgia - Photograph of a political rally for the gubernatorial race of 1906, Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Georgia, 1906
• United States Congress."Hoke Smith (id: S000551)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.0

• 1855 births
• 1931 deaths
• Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)
• United States secretaries of the interior
• People from Newton, North Carolina
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people
• American segregationists
• Democratic Party United States senators from Georgia (U.S. state)
• Cleveland administration cabinet members
• 19th-century American politicians
• Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta)
• Neo-Confederates
• School board members in Georgia (U.S. state)
• State political party chairs of Georgia (U.S. state)
• 20th-century United States senators

• Articles with short description
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