Blanche Louise Preston McSmith was the first African-American to serve in the Alaska Legislature.
She came to Kodiak with her husband, William McSmith, in 1949. The following year, settled in Anchorage, the Territory’s largest city.
She played a major role in organizing the Anchorage branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1951.
She was the branch president in 1959 when the organization pushed for a comprehensive civil rights bill when Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state. The new Alaska State Legislature, however, failed to support the bill.
In 1959, Governor Bill Egan appointed Blanche McSmith to fill a vacancy for the 10th District in the Alaska House of Representatives, and thus she became the first African American to serve in that body.
According to historian Albert Broussard (broo-SARD) McSmith ran for the seat in 1962, but lost in a 14-way race.
McSmith worked tirelessly to end housing and employment discrimination in Alaska. She helped with a fair housing ordinance passed by the Anchorage city council in 1967.
Employment discrimination proved equally troublesome for black Alaskans, and McSmith worked through the local NAACP to obtain employment opportunities for African Americans in both the public and private sectors.
In 1972, McSmith moved to Juneau, where she became the Director, in the Office of the Governor, for the Public Employment Program -- a position she held until retirement in the early 1980s.
Blanche Preston McSmith died in 2006 in after life-long efforts toward economic and social justice in Alaska.