Charles Spencer Smith

Charles Spencer Smith (March 16, 1852 – February 1, 1923) was a Canadian-American bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and politician, serving in the Alabama Legislature. He wrote numerous pamphlets during his lifetime, as well as a history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Glimpses of Africa (1895) chronicling his 1894 trip to Africa.

Born and raised in Canada, Smith moved to the United States at age fourteen and after a series of jobs and two years in the Alabama Legislature, he was ordained a minister, serving as a pastor in several southern states before being assigned to the Chicago Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Exposed to the work of the Sunday School Union there, he proposed that a similar organization be established for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He founded the organization and the first publishing house in the country owned by a person of African descent using steam presses. After his appointment as Bishop, Smith traveled widely and was assigned conferences in Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, and several in the United States. Upon retiring from conference work, he became the historian of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and wrote at least two books.