The Quentin P. Smith, Sr. Observation Deck

HONORING A TRAILBLAZER

The Quentin P. Smith, Sr. Observation Deck was established in 2022 by Indiana State University Trustee Cynthia Powers (’69) and her husband, Mamon Powers, Jr., to honor their friend and mentor, Quentin P. Smith, Sr. (’40). This space celebrates his legacy as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and an influential educator and civil leader in Northwest Indiana.

In 1940, Smith graduated from Indiana State Teacher’s College (now ISU) with a degree in social studies education, and taught for two years at Roosevelt High School in Gary. As a college student, Smith played football, served on the Union Board and as vice president of the senior class, and challenged racial segregation on campus.

He went on to join the Army at the start of World War II and, following the advice of fellow Sycamore and aviator Willa Brown, was assigned to the squadron that will become the Tuskegee Airmen.

While stationed at Freeman Field in Seymour, Indiana in 1945, First Lieutenant Smith and 100 black officers were imprisoned for defying an unlawful order barring black officers from entering the officers’ club.

Thurgood Marshall, an NAACP attorney who went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court justice, won the release of Smith and fellow officers. Two years later, President Truman integrated the military but it took more than 50 years for their service records to be cleared.

Later in 1945, Smith returned to Gary where he worked for more than four decades as a teacher, guidance counselor, principal, and eventually as director of secondary education for the Gary Community School Corporation. During his long career as an educator, Smith also served as president of the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority Board, the Chicago Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, chair of the Calumet College Board of Trustees, a member of the Gary City Council, and in numerous other civic, charitable, and religious organizations.