Maxine Smith was born on October 31, 1929 in Memphis, TN. She attended Booker T. Washington High School and graduated when she was 15. She attended Spellman College in Atlanta, GA and received her B.A degree in 1949. In 1951, she later received her master degree in French from Middlebury College in Vermont. She chose to attend Middlebury College because her first choice, the University of Tennessee, would not accept African American students. After Maxine graduated from Middlebury College she decided to volunteer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was an executive secretary. As the executive secretary, she coordinated sit-ins, protests, and voter registration drives. One boycott that Ms. Smith organized was the "If You're Black, Take It Back" campaign that boycotted downtown stores that would not integrate their work force. In 1961 she escorted thirteen black first-graders who desegregated four white public schools. In 1968 Ms. Smith worked on the coordinating committee of the sanitation workers strike. In 1969 she was in the forefront of Black Mondays which was a boycott on schools to force integration. The effort resulted in blacks being elected into the Memphis City School Board.
In 1971 Maxine took advantage of the restrictions and ran for and won a seat on the Memphis School Board. While on the Memphis City School Board, Mayor Willie Herenton was named superintendent in 1978.She was president of the Memphis School Board from 1991-1992 and served until 1995.
Maxine Smith is a member of many groups such as the Memphis Chapter of Links, Memphis Smart Set, and Memphis Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, all organizations of well-to-do African Americans. She attends church at Metropolitan Baptist Church.
