http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/29/WBGH81F04E1.DTL
S.F. State prof writes the book on black politics 

The first entry in Robert C. Smith's Encyclopedia of African- American Politics is "Abolitionist Movement," running at 2½ pages. Keep leafing and you get to "Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith's 1915 film that celebrated the Ku Klux Klan as heroes of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The B's are meaty: A little farther back, find "black church," "black nationalism, " "Black Panther Party" and "blackness" -- "a problematic concept," Smith wrote. "That is, it is difficult to objectively define, and when defined it has multiple meanings." 
In all, Smith, 56, an El Sobrante resident and San Francisco State University political science professor, wrote 400-plus entries about important court cases, speeches, events, presidents, wars, movements, acts of Congress, acts of courage and personalities - black and white, friends and foes. 
The entries range from feminism (the longest) to the Freedman's Bureau, the Million Man March, the Rainbow Coalition, slavery, Vernon Jordan, riots and Ward Connerly {ndash} cross-referenced with "Uncle Tom." Apparently, the first reference book of its kind, the encyclopedia was published in May by Facts on File. 
"I think it certainly will be useful on the high school civics level, or for introductory college courses. Encyclopedias tend to be useful for getting a grounding," said Charles Henry, an African American studies professor at UC Berkeley. 
Black politics, Smith wrote in the introduction, "is an enduringly fascinating phenomenon because of the asymmetrical power relationship between blacks and whites." 
Smith, who has degrees from UC Berkeley, UCLA and Howard University, is the author of nine books, including "Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era: Now You See It Now You Don't," and "We Have No Leaders: African Americans in the Post-Civil Rights Era." He has been thinking about and teaching black politics for decades, but assembling the encyclopedia gave him fresh insights into the nature of politics in this country, he said. 
"I knew this, but didn't -- how tenacious whites have been in their resistance to freedom and equality for African Americans. How it's just been tenacious from the beginning to now," he said. 
The other realization he had has to do with "how much the strength of the American government disadvantages African Americans. The separation of powers, federalism, the constitution, the two-party system. Defining features of the American government most of the time worked to disadvantage blacks and their quest for freedom and equality." 
The quintessential academician {ndash} he has glasses and graying hair and talks in long, perfectly composed paragraphs {ndash} Smith spoke recently about those people and events that have had a big enough impact on African American life to make it into the book. 
He likes to mention the Colfax Massacre of 1873, when 150 to 280 black citizens were killed over voting rights in Colfax, La. Memory of the massacre has faded over time, but it had an enormous impact on African Americans because it led to a Supreme Court case that said that the federal government didn't have the authority to punish violence against them. 
He also likes to talk about {ndash} as he often does in his classes {ndash} how, though the constitution never mentions slavery, Africa or blacks, it is impossible to understand the document without understanding the country's racial history. 
"There would not have been an electoral college if there had not been slaves," he said. "It was the mechanism by which Southern whites were empowered in choosing a president." 
Moreover, the 14th amendment, by which former slaves became citizens, can be thanked for everything from abortion rights to gay rights. 
"The first time it was interpreted, they said it was so clearly for the colored race, it was unlikely to be used for any other purpose. It's been used for virtually every other purpose," he said. 
The book includes mention of a number of lesser-known but influential figures: Joel Spingart, who was Jewish, led the NAACP with his brother from 1909 through the '30s. Herbert Aptheker, a good friend of W. E. B. DuBois who died just last year, is one of the founders of the modern field of African American studies. Isaiah T. Montgomery, a former slave, told the men at the Mississippi constitutional convention that black people didn't want political or civil rights and in exchange was given the town of Mound Bayou. Considered one of the first accommodationists -- he was a precursor to Booker T. Washington, "the paradigmatic Uncle Tom," Smith said -- Montgomery was influential because the Mississippi constitution was used as a model for other states. 
The enemies are tucked in there too. "While not racist, white supremacists, (Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater's) strong adherence to conservatism, in effect, made them racist," Smith said. Thomas Jefferson, "undoubtedly the smartest person ever to become president," was the first person to offer a scientific justification for white supremacy. Andrew Johnson was "without a doubt the most racist white supremacist to ever be president." 
Local lights include the self-styled radical Congressman Ronald Dellums, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party, Stanford University's Thomas Sowell, "the patron saint of modern-day black conservatism," and Nathan Hare, founder of the first African American studies program at San Francisco State. 
Smith himself was active in the '60s movement to establish ethnic studies programs. Then in 1990, when he joined the SF State faculty, he was the target of protestors who objected that he was diluting the ethnic studies school by joining the political science department and offering his black politics course there. Forty-five students enrolled in the class that year; only five finished the semester. That debate, which received national attention, was resolved when Smith changed the course's name. He still teaches the class. 
Smith was in the spotlight again the following year, when he ignited a campus debate by saying in class that if his daughters -- he is married and has three children -- came to him and said they had to choose between a good job and a good husband, he would tell them to take the good husband. A central problem of the so-called black underclass -- see "underclass" in the encyclopedia -- "is female-headed households," Smith said. "From that flows a whole series of problems in the black community." 
He still stands by those comments he made more than a decade ago, he said, 
although he's backed away from some other controversial opinions. 
He no longer thinks that black studies programs should link activism and scholarship. And though he identifies himself as a black nationalist -- "I don't think that black Americans can be integrated into American society," he said -- he does not still believe that blacks should only marry other blacks. 
A couple hours after a hefty conversation about the high and low points of black politics, Smith decided he hadn't quite said it all. 
"I think we forgot to talk about the good white people. Those whites who have been very good friends of blacks," he said in a phone message. "I would say Abe Lincoln, of course, because he won the Civil War among other things. Charles Sumner, the senator from Massachusetts, the leader of so-called radical Republicans; John F. Kennedy, because he was the first American president to declare that segregation and racism were morally wrong; Edward Kennedy, a tenacious advocate for civil rights and social welfare legislation; Chief Justice Earl Warren . . . and Lyndon Johnson, who did more as president in four years than all other presidents combined in the struggle for African American freedom and equality." 
E-mail Rona Marech at rmarech@sfchronicle <mailto:rmarech@sfchronicle.com>