Betty L. Smith/aka/Betty L. Hearn (please just call me "LOU" )

Curator and Leasing Manager..For Speaking Engagements Call 813-451-2337.

Good news! What does one do when handed a lemon?We make lemonade! Betty expanded the HSA housing mission to include awareness and advocacy initiatives.  SEE HER POWERFUL STORY. Click Legal Battle and Mississippi Black Codes for details, and Donations for HSA's expanded mission.

U.S. National Park Service Adds Historic Smith Apartments (HSA) to the National Register of Historic Properties (NRHP)

Significance in Black History: Black Americans have lost 80% of land, rural and agricultural, acquired between 1907 and 2007 – significantly widening the racial wealth gap. Source: Black families are holding onto ancestral land for generations, despite developers’ efforts to take it (nbcnews.com) By 1910, Black Americans...had acquired a cumulative 16 million acres of rural land, according to the American Economic Association. But over the century that followed, 90% of that land was lost because of threats, violent force or systematic rejection... [Due to] distrust of local governments, which had been charged with regulating property ownership in Southern states hostile to Black equality, and legal systems that had shut out Black families, many took informal routes to pass down ownership. Source: Heirs’ Property and Its Effects on Black Land Ownership in Cities - National League of Cities (nlc.org)​​​​​​​​​


Significance in Mississippi’s History: Historic Smith Apartments (HSA) is located at 1047 Smith Drive, Raymond, Mississippi, 39154, an unincorporated section of Hinds County Mississippi. It is believed to be the first or only surviving apartment property, of its size and age, built, owned and operated by an African American family in Mississippi, and likely the U.S. It was also the first apartment property built in the City of Raymond. Subsequently, the closest such facility, located in the inner city of Jackson, approximately thirty miles east of HSA, was owned or operated by Whites. HSA's development, by Betty's parents, Hubert Clinton Smith, Sr. and Barbara Marie Moses Smith, was not without hardships. However, despite the generational burden of Southern Black Codes which disenfranchised African American property ownership and especially their leasing of property, for income, this building's development commenced in 1964. It was completed in 1969, when fair housing, for minorities, was nearly nonexistent and long before the 1968 Fair Housing Civil Rights Acts ushered in a federally sponsored boom in low-income housing development.  Working with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Betty found no other such developments in any surrounding towns so most, African Americans, had lived in small single-family houses, tenant farm housing, duplexes and fourplexes.

​Significance in U.S. History: ​Commencing in New York, the development of apartments in the U.S. gained popularity in the 1960's for low-income tenants and immigrants as they transitioned into the mainstream of American society. Today, apartments are developed for every socioeconomic level across the U.S. However, many African American communities, built by African Americans have fallen prey to indifference, community re-development, and highway construction.


Significance in the American Civil War:  More….


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Betty's Bio: She is mother of two sons and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority​​​​​​​. Her work experiences include 30 years as a professional with IBM Corporation where she worked in the Contracts and Negotiations Legal department and IBM Finance and Accounting departments. After retiring from IBM, she spent four years teaching technology in the public school system of Florida. She has spent the past twenty years fighting to preserve the legacy and affordable housing operation of HSA. See the "Store" page for her books, born out of her battle to save HSA from local officials operating only under the "color of law."

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​​​​​​​​"Because of my personal battle to save HSA from elitest politicians, I no longer use the term "eminent domain abuse" because it sanitizes the ugly truth--property taken without proper consideration and compensation to the property owner must be called and addressed according to what it is-- a crime. Despite popular belief, Heir Property is only symptomatic of some losses of Black owned land and businesses. One major problem: Despite the increased number of elected Black officials, all have failed to address such losses. HSA is a poster child for how willing officials and their systems (e.g., employees, police/deputies, courts, private actors, bogus documents) are wittingly or unwittingly and systemically aiding and abetting such losses of the generational wealth of Black families in the United States.​"                                                                                                                        Betty L. Smith​

  • HSA was added to the national registry, in 2020, with the high honor of state level significance. HSA and the Medgar Ever's home are the only Black owned properties with this distinction.  See Final Smith Apts NRHP Approval 07 01 2020.pdf .
  • HSA is the first R-4 commercially zoned multi-family property, privately developed, owned, and operated by Black Americans.
  • Since Betty started its restoration in 2004, local Black Democratic elected officials have attempted to give a critical portion of HSA to an adjoining parcel owned by a private actor, one of their former employees, to enlarge her paved parking area. ​​