Smith was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was raised by a single mother in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Smith credits his mother with being a driving force in the creation of his monumental sculpture garden, acknowledging her amazing love and devotion to God and the church and her familial devotion as rock-solid guides to understanding life. In addition to the example set by his mother, Smith we greatly affected by his own experiences. When Smith was a boy of fourteen years, Emmett Till of Chicago – a boy near Smith’s own age – was visiting his relatives in Mississippi where he became the victim of horrific racial violence.

Later, as a young adult, Smith served as a United States Marine in Vietnam. Among the many struggles was the loss of his brother-in-combat, Sergeant Ramey, just moments after the two were photographed together. While Smith received an honorable discharge and the Purple Heart, the lasting effects of Agent Orange and the horrors of war are still with him. Smith notes it was after he returned from Vietnam that he felt divinely inspired to create art that bolstered the self-esteem of African-Americans and other minorities. He says, “I’m going into the heart of mankind – Blacks, Whites, Hispanics – wherever ignorance separates us I want to be there.