Hoke Smith
American politician (1855-1931)
Michael Hoke Smith (September 2, 1855 – November 27, 1931) was an American attorney, politician, and newspaper owner who served as United States secretary of the interior (1893–1896), 58th governor of Georgia (1907–1909, 1911), and a United States senator (1911–1920) from Georgia. He was a leader of the progressive movement in the South and a white supremacist and segregationist who successfully campaigned to further disenfranchise African American voters in 1907.
Early years and education
Smith was born in Newton, North Carolina, on September 2, 1855, to Hildreth H. Smith, president of Catawba College, and Mary Brent Hoke. When Smith was 2 years old, his father accepted a position on the faculty of the University of North Carolina and moved the family to Chapel Hill. Smith attended Pleasant Retreat Academy and was primarily educated by his father. Smith was too young to participate in the Civil War, but his uncle, Confederate General Robert Hoke, fought in the war. In 1868, when the elder Smith lost his position at the university, he moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia, the city that would remain the younger Smith's home for the rest of his life. Smith did not attend law school, but read for the law in association with an Atlanta law firm. He passed the bar examination in 1873, at age seventeen, and became a lawyer in Atlanta.
Law practice
Smith maintained a small office in the James building downtown.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hoke Smith” as american politician (1855-1931). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q356810. VIAF identifies the subject as 1490425. The Library of Congress control number is n86071265. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1855, 1931, 1893 and 1896.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hoke Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.