H.T.’s passion for a cause and effective advocacy skills were evidenced early on when he persuaded the University of Miami School of Law to admit him before even taking the Law School Admission Test. His argument: that it was unfair to punish him for not being able to take a test that was not administered in the jungles of Vietnam, while he fought for his country.

H.T. earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from tradition-rich Florida A&M University,
and upon graduation was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.

His legal career blazed new trails from the start – – as Miami-Dade County’s first African
American assistant public defender and first African American assistant county attorney. He was
a partner in the first African American law firm to locate its office in downtown Miami – Long
and Smith, P.A.

For the past 50 years, H.T. has practiced law in Miami, specializing in civil rights, personal
injury, and criminal defense. He was voted the Top Trial Lawyer of 2017 by the Dade County
Bar Association, and the National Law Journal recognized him as one of America’s Top 10 Trial
Lawyers of the Year. He has been inducted into the “Legal Legends” of Miami -Dade County,
he is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Florida Super Lawyers, and Law and Leading
American Attorneys.

H.T. was one of the lead attorneys in the successful legal challenge to Ward Connelly’s effort to
pass a Constitutional Amendment outlawing affirmative action in public education, public
employment, and public contracting. In his argument to the Florida Supreme Court, H.T.
described Connelly’s so-called “Civil Rights Initiative” as a “cruel hoax” on the people of
Florida.

In the landmark case of Aubrey Livingston v. State of Florida, H.T. successfully reversed a death
sentence where he persuaded the Florida Supreme Court to rule that it is reversible error for a
jury in a capital case to recess once they begin deliberations.

H.T. was the founding President of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association, and a Founding
member of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association. He also served as President
of the Virgil Hawkins Florida Chapter of the National Bar Association, and the National Bar
Association – which is the oldest and largest bar association in America for people of color.

During the Miami Riot of 1982, H.T. engineered and participated in the rescue of Judge
Rosemary Usher Jones from a video arcade in Overtown where the riot started. Judge Jones later
wrote, “As I sat in the Overtown Arcade on that bleak December evening…and called H.T., I
knew I was calling a champion. I was in grave danger and fast running out of time. Once again,
I saw his remarkable courage and bright mind at work. This time, incredibly, to save my life”.

He led the South Florida Coalition for a Free South Africa (a branch of the international Free
South Africa Movement) from 1984 until Nelson Mandela was released from prison on February
11, 1990. This direct-action campaign resulted in governmental agencies, companies, and
colleges in South Florida divesting from companies doing business in or with apartheid South
Africa, boycotting clothing and food that was imported from South Africa and stopping the sale
of krugerands by financial institutions in South Florida.

Then from 1990-1993, H.T. led the hugely successful Boycott Miami Campaign – which was
organized after local politicians snubbed Nelson Mandela during his historic visit to Miami. The
tourism boycott lasted 1,000 days, caused a loss of $110 million in lost tourism business, and its
settlement resulted in significant economic and educational opportunities for African Americans
in the tourism industry, including the development of the first Black-owned convention-quality
hotel in the United States–on the ocean, in Miami Beach; 25 full-tuition scholarships per year in
perpetuity at FIU’s renown hospitality management program; creation of the Black Executive
Forum to reverse the Black brain-drain in Miami-Dade County; establishment of the
INROADS/Miami program to provide internships, externships, scholarships and mentoring to
Black college students; creation of the Batten Fellows program to provide leadership training to
Black professionals; depositing of millions of dollars in Miami’s only Black owned bank; and
partnering large corporations with small Black businesses to increase earnings.

In 1995, H.T. – along with Dean Colson and Hank Adorno – led the ambitious philanthropic
effort to raise $5 million dollars to build the 27,000 square foot NFL Youth Education Town
(YET) Center at Gwen Cherry Park in Liberty City. The NFL YET Center was built with private
funds and donated to the Miami-Dade County Parks Department for the benefit of the children in
that community. This NFL YET Center provides computer training; health, nutrition and fitness
courses; homework assistance; educational programs; arts and crafts; music and media training;
and all types of sporting activities for hundreds of boys and girls. H.T. then led the effort to
establish the Gwen Cherry Park Foundation, Inc. to serve as the advocacy and fundraising arm
for the park to support the academic and athletic programs at Gwen Cherry Park and to ensure
that financial support would be available to support the programs in perpetuity.

In 1997, as Chairman of the Declaration of Rights Committee of the Florida Constitution
Revision Commission, Smith championed the amendment that explicitly gave women and people
born outside the United States equal protection under the law.

And in 2002, as Co-Chairman of the “Say No to Discrimination” referendum in Miami-Dade
County, he successfully fought for equal rights for all people regardless of their sexual
orientation.

In 2003, H.T. was tapped to become the Inaugural Director of Florida International University
College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Program. The student body has presented him with the
“Pioneer Award” for his innovative excellence as a legal educator, and the University has
honored him with its prestigious “Top Scholar Award”. His Mock Trial team is already ranked in
the top 15 in the country.

H.T. joined the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami in 2003 where he has served as
Vice-Chairman, as well as Chairman of the Student Affairs, Membership and Governance
Committees.

H.T. has received numerous awards for over five decades of service to his community,
profession, and country. The following have been named in his honor – the Harold Long and
H.T. Smith Student Services Building at the University of Miami; the H.T. Smith Black Law
Student Association, established at FIU College of Law; the H.T. Smith Lifetime Achievement
Award by the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce; the H.T. Smith Legal Studies Scholarship by
the Kluger Kaplan Law Firm; the H.T. Smith Fellowship, establish by Legal Services of Greater
Miami; the H.T. Smith Fellowship, established by the Florida State Conference of NAACP
Branches; and the H.T. Smith Achievement Award, established by INROADS/Miami.

H.T. has devoted his entire legal career to “agitating for justice”. In a letter to the National Bar
Association, South African President Nelson Mandela wrote: “We join your members in paying
special tribute to your retiring President, H.T. Smith, whose name became well-known for his
consistent and courageous contribution and support for the struggle of our people against
apartheid. We wish H.T., well, we are confident that wherever injustice and racism raise their
ugly heads, H.T. will be there to raise his powerful voice of protest and resistance”.