Celebrating Black History

Herbert Smitherman

Herbert Smitherman

Meet Dr. Herbert Smitherman, Sr. (1937-2010)

Dr. Herbert Smitherman Sr. was an innovative chemist who worked for the major consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble. While some thought Smitherman was the inventor of Crest Toothpaste, Folgers Coffee and other products, he instead helped to improve these already established products.

Smitherman was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama on March 23, 1937, the only child of a Baptist minister and homemaker. Smitherman graduated from Tuskegee University, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry. After teaching at Texas Southern University and a two-year stint in the Army, he entered Howard University to obtain his Ph. D.

Smitherman joined Procter & Gamble in 1966 as its first Black hire with a doctorate in physical organic chemistry. For 29 years, Smitherman was one of the company’s leading chemists, and did make some tweaks to the Crest formula. Other items that Smitherman worked on were flavors for Crush soda, Safeguard soap, and Biz detergent, among others. According to some accounts, Smitherman helped formulate the procedures that led to Procter & Gamble owning several long-standing patents.

After leaving Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Smitherman joined Wilberforce University as the Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs. In 2009, he became a principal for the Cincinnati Public School system for the Western Hills Design Technology High and Virtual High Schools.

Smitherman’s P&G legacy included establishing a program to attract Black chemists and doctoral students to the company. He also helped create the National Organization for Black Chemist and Chemical Engineers (NOBCHE).

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Meet Jarena Lee: First Woman Preacher in the AME Church (1783-1864)

Jarena Lee

Jarena Lee

Jarena Lee was a 19th century African American woman who left behind an eloquent account of her religious experiences, first published as The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee in 1836 and later revised and expanded as Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee in 1849. Jarena Lee became the first woman to be authorized to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.by Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

However, despite Allen’s blessing, Lee faced hostility because she was black and a woman. She was granted permission first to preach on the itinerary circuit and then to hold prayer meetings in her home, both huge concessions to be given to a nineteenth century woman of any race.

Lee outlines in her autobiography her spiritual journey and trials, but offers very little information about her family or personal life. She does leave the reader with an impression of herself as an extremely strong woman, one who passes into dangerous slaveholding towns to preach the gospel, and one who stands up to the church leaders of her day, asserting her right to preach as a God-given gift that must be used.

In 1833, Jarena Lee began working with an editor to turn her religious journal into an autobiography. Three years later she had 1000 copies of The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee printed, and began distributing it at camp meetings, organizational meetings and on the street. She sold her little book to raise funds for her travels.

In 1839, one year before she joined the American Antislavery Society, she had another 1000 copies printed. In 1849 she printed an expanded version, Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee, which carried her autobiography up to her 50th year. There is no known record of Jarena Lee’s later years or her death.