Inez Smith Reid

Inez Smith Reid J59 was always certain to go to Tufts; the Jackson College dean Katherine Jeffers, had recruited her in high school. In order to afford tuition, Smith Reid took classes at Howard University and worked as a church secretary in her hometown of Washington, DC for one year before transferring to Tufts. When she first arrived on campus, Jeffers personally greeted her. Smith Reid was one of three Black women enrolled at Jackson College in her year, and she experienced instances of racism and sexism from her peers and professors in the sociology department.

Despite these barriers, Smith Reid was able to find her voice on campus, quite literally. She had experience participating in oratory and speaking competitions in high school and joined both the Debate Team and the Forensic Council at Tufts; by her senior year, Smith Reid was president of both groups. Smith Reid was also a leader at Jackson College, serving on the Jackson College Judiciary Council. When the male editors of the Tufts Weekly wrote a series of articles belittling the Jackson College Judiciary Council and questioning their very existence, Smith Reid defended the Council in letters to the editors and pointed out the lack of maturity of certain male students.

Smith Reid graduated magna cum laude with a degree in sociology before enrolling at Yale Law School with her twin brother. The two of them were the only Black students in the class of 1962. Following graduation, Smith Reid was recruited by the Ford Foundation to teach law in the now Republic of Congo and help train magistrates and establish the newly independent country's judicial system. Despite this experience, Smith Reid struggled to break into the racist and sexist legal field and also pursued a MA in political science at UCLA and a PhD in government and public law at Columbia University.

In the 1970s, Smith Reid was the first inspector-general for the Environmental Protection Agency and was appointed as the Attorney General of the District of Columbia in 1983 and served in the position for three years. Her career in federal government reached a new level in 1995, when Bill Clinton appointed her to the DC Court of Appeals. As a member of the DC Court of Appeals, Smith Reid was a prolific juror, averaging over eighty decisions in a four-year period. One of her most famous rulings was in 2010, when she ruled against an anti-gay marriage group that tried to introduce a ballot initiative. Smith Reid retired from active service in 2011 and remained on the Court as a senior judge in 2017.

Biography written and researched by Cat Rosch.