Ted Smedley and the Law School

Ted Smedley had been a member of the faculty at Washington and Lee for eighteen years when he accepted our invitation to come to Vanderbilt. We wanted him to become Director of the Race Relations Law Reporter and to teach some of his customary courses. His coming may well have been the most felicitous occurrence for the school in the 1950's... Ted's work in the field of race relations extended beyond publishing the Reporter.

He also taught a seminar on varying aspects of the field some five or six times and gave addresses and informal talks on the subject to numerous groups and organizations in various parts of the country. Professor Smedley also wrote with some frequency for other publications-his writings include items ranging from explanatory treatments in lay publications to carefully researched articles in law reviews. As a whole, these activities contributed substantially to the development of the law.