Jackie Garner

Jackie Garner Smith (also Jackie Garner) can trace her family’s Phoenix roots to 1915. Her grandparents were the original owners of the Arizona Gleam, and her parents were some of the first to own a home in Sheraton Park. Her mother and grandmother both taught at Carver High School. She made her mark early at South Mountain High, and later followed in her family’s footsteps to become a longtime Phoenix educator.

Jackie Garner was born in 1942, in Phoenix, Arizona. Her grandfather, George Smith fled Corsicana, Texas in 1915 because according to Jackie, “He mouthed off to some white man… which in those days was an invitation for lynching.” Bound for California, Smith got off the train during a fuel stop in Phoenix, AZ. He walked around, looked around, and decided Phoenix was good enough for him and his family. No need to keep on to California. He sent a telegram to his young wife, Myrtle, saying “I kinda like this. We’re going to settle here.”

Smith was a Tuskegee-trained blacksmith, Myrtle was a teacher who earned her degree at Fisk. They settled in Eastlake and though George didn’t find much blacksmithing work, the two of them made their indelible stamp on Phoenix culture. They founded the Arizona Gleam which was later owned by the first black woman publisher, they raised a family, and Myrtle taught at the Phoenix Union High School in the basement. She later taught at George Washington Carver High School – then called Phoenix Union Colored High School. Her daughter and her granddaughter (Jackie) both followed in her footsteps, becoming highly trained and teaching in Phoenix’s historically Black schools.

George and Myrtle’s story was quintessential in some ways. Nationally, they were part of the Great Migration of Blacks moving from the American south to western and northern cities. They faced racial violence and segregation, even in their new home cities. Here in Phoenix, they joined the prominent community of Eastlake, well-documented when it comes to the history of Black Arizona.

Throughout most of her life, Jackie’s family was limited in where they could buy property, and thus go to school. When interviewed with her sister-in-law, who grew up in the same community, the two remembered the “close-knit” community of South Phoenix, where they grew up. Jackie and her brother grew up south of the Salt River, because their parents decided to take a chance on the newly-constructed Travis Williams development, Sheraton Park. When she was interviewed, she brought her childhood best friend and her now sister-in-law, Lula Smith to the interview.

Lula grew up on Violet Street in Sheraton Park, just a quick walk from Sheraton Park Elementary – later Martin Luther King Jr. School and Percy Julian Middle. Across the street from Lula and down the street from Jackie was a compound owned by the activist and saxophone player Louis Jordan who helped desegregate Sky Harbor Airport.

Jordan sold the house to the Nation of Islam in the late 1960s. Elijah Mohammed spent many winters there and the Brotherhood still owns the property.

Both Smith and Garner remembered “going to town” as part of their childhood experience. Since South Phoenix was deeply rural and fairly isolated from downtown, as well as Tempe, it was often an event to cross the Salt River to go shopping, swimming, or to visit family in Eastlake.

Smith attended 40th Street School, Percy Julian Middle School, and South Mountain High School. She was always very involved in school, performed well academically, and maintained close friendships. At the time South Mountain High School was relatively new, and home to a near 30:30:30 ratio of Mexican-American, Black, and Anglo students. With Carver High School recently closing, the city’s Black high school students who were new to South Mountain High had to navigate their new school and these new racial dynamics.

When Smith graduated high school, she was poised to succeed in higher education. She moved to Texas to attend college, where she had some exciting times as a vibrant young lady in a college town. She married young while living in Texas, and then returned to Phoenix, where she ultimately divorced her husband. Even though the marriage didn’t last, she kept the name Garner Smith. At the time, Phoenix was still segregated, and African Americans could not purchase homes north of Washington Street, or in Tempe. Garner Smith became involved in the movements to change these restrictions, even though she remained in South Phoenix as a resident and professional. She became a teacher, and later the director of the South Phoenix Head Start program.

Smith stayed connected to South Phoenix for her entire adult life, giving her a unique and vibrant perspective on the changes that took place over the whole of the late twentieth century. From Etta James to Sky Harbor Airport expansion, to Cheeto Bandito, Smith saw it all.

Index to Jackie Garner and Lula Smith’s Interview.

Narrators	Jackie Garner Smith, Lula Smith
Birthdate	January 15, 1942
Place of Origin	South Phoenix, AZ
Place of Residence	South Phoenix, AZ
Occupation	Educator
Recording Dates	March,6,2024 March 6, 2024 and November 13th, 2024
Interview Location	South Mountain Community College
Recording Duration	1:21:56 Interview 1 50:14 Interview 2
Interview by	Faculty researchers Summer Cherland and Travis May
Story by	Student Researchers Kylie Rehberger and Liliana Campos Faculty Researcher Summer Cherland
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