Hartford Smith Jr. is a social work professor and media creator. He was born in Fayette,
Alabama, on July 2, 1937, and he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta before transferring
to Wayne State University, where he majored in Political Science and Public Administration.
He earned his masters at Wayne State's School of Social Work in 1965, and he also completed
law classes while working on his graduate degree. He then worked for the State of Michigan
on problems between the juvenile court and the state's social services, developing a program
to connect resources across state programs for juvenile offenders. In 1968, he co-created,
wrote, and hosted the radio program Seeds of Discontent,
which explored discontented social groups and organizations attempting to improve their
conditions in American society. Seeds of Discontent was
distributed by the National Educational Radio Network and awarded a certificate of merit by
the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. He later worked on adapting the series
and its approach to other media. From 1968 to 2011, he taught in the School of Social Work
and directed the Division of Community Education at Wayne State University. His teaching
areas included social problems in urban communities and community organizing.
