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Searching for John Smith: Out of the Shadows
Posted by Elizabeth Jane Walker | February 17, 2020
It was a brave move for an African American who’d spent most of his life in Nebraska and California to
move to Memphis and join an upstart hospital during an era of intense social unrest.
Tucked away in the photographic archives of St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital is an intriguing portrait. Captured in 1965, the
image depicts a young African American man gazing pensively into
the middle distance. John Wesley Smith, MD, was only three years
out of medical school when he agreed to move to the South and join
an upstart hospital during an era of intense social unrest. It was a
brave move for a man who had spent most of his life in Nebraska
and California.
No one has chronicled the life and achievements of this remarkable
physician. Because he died in 1984 and most of his colleagues have
retired, the clues were sparse. But Smith deserves to have his
pioneering efforts brought to light, 55 years after his arrival in
Memphis.
According to hospital records, Smith began his career at St. Jude on
a hot July day in 1965. He would go on to treat children in the
hospital’s Solid Tumor clinic and conduct research in the Virology
and Infectious Diseases departments.
