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Connecting with V. Anne Smith

Pia K. Hansen
The Spokesman-Review
October 8, 2007

It’s the early 1960s and V. Anne Smith is walking down a street in Germany. On the sidewalk she meets a group of preschool children and their teachers. The children stare with huge eyes at the tiny black woman who’s coming toward them.

Never a shy one, Smith stops and exchange pleasantries with the teachers. Soon, the children are arguing loudly among themselves in German. It turns out they want to know if Smith needs to take a bath, to get that brown color to wash off?

“I reach out my hand and say, ‘Come here, you can touch me,’” Smith recalled, smiling brightly at the memory. “And they keep arguing. But then this little boy steps up and touches my hand – and soon the kids all surround me, talking.”

Born in the small college town of Bluefield in West Virginia, it took more than two decades, via military installations in Europe, from the time she left her birthplace until Smith arrived in Spokane in 1968. Her husband Jim was in the military and a transfer that brought the little family to the Inland Northwest.

“When I came off the plane my husband said Airway Heights was Spokane. I told my son right there, ‘We are not gonna stay here,’” Smith said. At the top of the I-90 hill, where the view of Spokane spreads out before you, Smith had a little change of heart.

“I said, ‘look, there are people here!’ That was my coming to Spokane,” Smith said.

Smith stuck around, working for Washington Trust Bank. When her husband retired from the military, he went back to school for a master’s degree and then worked as personnel director for the city of Spokane.

Tomorrow, the YWCA is giving Smith the Carl Maxey Racial Justice award for her ongoing fight for social justice and her role as a youth mentor, as well as her work to develop the Col. Michael Anderson scholarships for high school and college students.

President of the local chapter of the NAACP for five years, Smith has been involved in the local black community since the early 1970s, and she counted Maxey as a friend.

“I knew him well. He called me ‘Baby Sis,’” Smith said. “It means a lot to me that I knew him, now that I get this award.”

In the late ’70s, Maxey was by Smith’s side as they – along with other members of the black community – took to the Spokane Park Board a protest against an Aryan gathering planned for Riverfront Park.

“We did not want Butler and his guys over here,” Smith said. “And Jim Chase said it was freedom of speech and that we could not stop them.”

That didn’t discourage Smith.

“I was an angry little woman,” she said. “In my mind I’m thinking about Jim Chase that ‘you are a black mayor and you know (Aryans) don’t like black people,’ but I didn’t say it. Carl Maxey did. He said it, Carl took him on.”

It’s obvious that Smith isn’t afraid of sharing her opinion, yet she’s completely at peace with the controversy she stirs up.

“As long as you say and do what’s in your heart, you’re gonna be alright,” Smith said.

This summer she spoke out against Unity in the Community, which she perceived as a traditionally black neighborhood gathering hosted by Bethel AME church in the East Central neighborhood. She said the festival had no business leaving behind East Central to move to Riverfront Park.

“They left that community without a day of celebration. Do you realize what that did to that community?” Smith said. “They don’t even have a neighborhood day.”

She said she heard from people in East Central who were upset.

“They don’t want to collaborate with Unity. Unity is white. It’s not about us or about people of color,” Smith said.

The last three years Unity in the Community has been organized by AHANA – a minority business organization.

Ben Cabildo, AHANA’s executive director, said, “It’s the perception of V. Anne and other people that it was a black festival. But when we got involved in it, the group behind Unity wanted the event to be built up and to include other cultures. That’s what I got involved in it for. NAACP was never involved in organizing it.”

Pastor Lonnie Mitchell and Bethel AME church organized Unity until AHANA took over. “I know she says we’ve given it to the white people,” Cabildo said, “but we joined in to showcase the community and showcase diversity.” He added that there was significant participation from the black community in this year’s Unity celebration, which had 6,000 visitors and 30 different cultures represented.

“I don’t think any of us are wrong, we just have a very different perception of what happened,” Cabildo said. “And I’ve talked to the East Central Community board and to Bethel AME; they are interested in building a neighborhood event. If you really are concerned about it you should help build it.”

Smith takes a lot of heat for her comments, but popularity is not what it’s all about – a lesson she said she learned from Maxey.

“He knew he wasn’t popular with everybody and that didn’t make him any different,” Smith said. “He said to me, ‘you do what you do and when you can lay down at night and you can sleep, then you are alright.’ And I have felt that.”

As a mentor for other women, Smith’s strength and experience is deeply appreciated.

“She is an individual you can call, any time of the day, and she will listen to you and she’s going to help you if it has to do with what I call racism,” said Maria Rodriguez Salazar, national vice president for the Northwest Region of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). “She has just been involved with her work for so long that she can help you make sense of what you are doing. She’s a person I can go to and not feel like I’m being beaten down.”

Smith speaks lovingly of her life-long relationship with her husband, Jim. He’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and she worries about losing his support.

“He always allowed me to be me, and that’s a beautiful thing,” Smith said. Her son and close friends help occasionally take care of Jim, so she can stay involved in community activities.

She just recently met with Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.

“I admire her. I admire strong women. It is so refreshing,” Smith said about her impression of the Chief. “She and I know we won’t always agree, but she said she’d do everything she can to work with us.”

Smith doesn’t have a problem being called a feminist.

“If that’s what you want to call it, that’s fine with me,” she said. “Men are men – they are used to being the dominant – but I wasn’t gonna let me stop me.”

She mentions women like Lydia Simms, Jan Polek, Frances Scott and Sheri Barnard as people she leaned on and who inspired her along the way.

“I’m standing on the shoulders of some fantastic women,” Smith said. “Many of them never got any due back in the time.”

Quick questions

V. Anne Smith, president, NAACP Spokane chapter

Who inspires you? "My mother was the first to inspire me, indeed."

What was the last book you read? "The one by Barack Obama."

What's your least favorite household chore? "All of them. People say that Jim spoiled me. But you know, I never made a pot of coffee – every morning he'd make that coffee and put that mug right there by my bed."

On women of a "certain age" wearing 3-inch heels: "God has made it possible that the muscles in my legs are still strong, so I'll wear a 3-inch heel if I want to."

What's the biggest misconception people have about you? "That I want everything perfect. I am a stickler for protocol, for etiquette, but sometimes you have to improvise and be flexible."

Do you have a temper? "I do, but it takes a little bit to get me there. If I start to hum, then you know I'm ready. You may see a little water in the corner of my eye, but it ain't gonna drop. And that's when my son says, 'Watch out, the girlfriend is coming on.' "

On the benefits of having a 'V. Anne day' once in awhile: "You have to have a day like that, just for yourself. Where you can get out the perfume and get in the bathtub or if you just wanna stay in bed all day, you can do that. You have to do that so you can reach down inside and find out who you are, and what's original about being you."

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