This story is part of Illinois Student Newsroom’s series: Champaign’s Honorary Streets: the Stories Behind the Signs.
CHAMPAIGN – Between Tremont and Eureka streets in Champaign, Fifth Street is now Honorary Walter Smith Way, recognizing a man who devoted his life to supporting young people in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Walter Smith was born in Greenville, Mississippi. He grew up on the West Side of Chicago, where violence was common, said his daughter, Shalena Thomas.
Smith had to learn survival tactics from a young age, she said. Her father’s upbringing was the driving force behind his motivation to help children.
“I think he wanted to make things a lot easier for those kids in the neighborhood around Douglass Center,” where Smith held leadership roles, Thomas said. “He didn’t want them to grow up like he had to.”
Smith came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1968 as part of “Project 500,” a university-led initiative to admit more Black and Latino students. He studied kinesiology and was always passionate about sports, Thomas said.
“He was a health nut,” she said. “Fitness was his thing.”
Smith would use everyday household items, like a broom, to reach his fitness goals without having to go to the gym. He also coached Thomas in track and field for many years.
Smith brought his passion for supporting children to Champaign’s Douglass Community Center, where he served as director at a time when middle schoolers were getting recruited to join gangs, according to reporting from Illinois Periodicals Online cited in a report to the City Council.
In the 1990s, Smith formed a football team for Black youth in northeast Champaign, providing kids an alternative to gangs and a safe haven from the streets.
The neighborhoods around the Douglass Center, including Douglass Square Apartments and Garden Park, are mostly low-income, where kids were more vulnerable to gang involvement, said Thomas. And her father was determined to help them.
In addition to providing activities, Smith also helped revive the Summer Food Service Programs so lower-income kids could meet their nutritional needs during the summer.
Smith also hosted community events, like Champaign-Urbana Day, which Thomas said was usually held in August. While the event remains a beloved community tradition to this day, she said she still misses the days when her father was involved.
“I remember one time he had a hot air balloon, so all the kids got to go on [it],” Thomas said. “There was a fashion show, talent show, different vendors, so just another way he brought the community together.”
To recognize her father’s lifelong dedication to the Douglass Center, Thomas submitted his name to the City of Champaign’s honorary street sign program after he died in 2021.
“My dad was a bit of a workaholic, so he worked all the time,” Thomas said. “He was there before anyone usually got there, unlocking the doors, making sure his staff had what they needed, and sometimes the last person to leave.”
Beyond his community work, Smith was a loving father. His youngest daughter, Erica Smith, said she and her father were always close.
“He was very funny. I love that he was tall and …he was strong too. So he could always pick me up and throw me around and spin me around,” she said. “And, you know, it was just fun to do that all the time. And I just loved being around him and talking to him. He was a good listener.”
Erica Smith said she was grateful to see an outpouring of love, appreciation and support from people after her father died.
“I feel my father’s legacy is a legacy of love and service — one built on compassion, generosity and faith in the power of community,” Thomas said. “He believed that every act of kindness could plant a seed, that meeting the needs of others was a calling, and that by lifting children, we lift the future.”
The Douglass Community Center, operated by the Champaign Park District, continues to offer a wide range of after-school activity programs for young people.