Smithfield neighborhood

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Smithfield
Seal of birmingham.jpg
Birmingham neighborhoods
District(s) 5, 6, 9
Community Smithfield
Population 1,623
Area N/A
President Pat Davis
Meeting site Legion Field, (map)
Meeting day 2nd Sunday
Website
Neighborhood map Smithfield

Smithfield is a neighborhood in Birmingham's Smithfield community, which is named for the "Smithfield" subdivision, settled beginning in the 1880s and annexed into the city of Birmingham in 1909. By the 1920s the district was a prominent Black residential neighborhood, a pattern that was enforced by the city's 1926 zoning ordinance.

The present Smithfield neighborhood is bounded on the south by Birmingham's Railroad Reservation, on the west by Center Street, on the north by I-20/59, and on the east by I-65. The neighborhood is anchored by Parker High School and the Smithfield Communtiy Center at 150 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr Boulevard.

It is also home of the Smithfield Court public housing community, and the Jefferson County Family Court and G. Ross Bell Youth Detention Center. The Smithfield Library is located just outside the neighborhood at 1 8th Avenue West in Graymont.

In 1947 Black ore miner Samuel Matthews purchased a lot in an area of Smithfield set to be rezoned from white to Black, but was denied an occupancy permit by the Birmingham Department of Planning and Engineering. Arthur Shores represented him in a successful lawsuit challenging the city's racial zoning. His new home was subsequently destroyed by a bomb, touching off a wave of bombings in the neighborhood intended to terrorize Black homebuyers and anyone who might sell property to them.

The northern section of the Smnithfield neighborhood suffered extensive damage from an April 1977 tornado.

The Smithfield Neighborhood Association meets on the second Sunday of each month in the lobby of Legion Field. Pat Davis is the neighborhood president.

Demographics

  • 2010: 1,800 (97.2% Black)
  • 2020: 1,623 (90.6% Black)

Presidents