Charlie Smith papers

Charles William Smith, known as Charlie, was born on December 15, 1959, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to James Alexander Smith, Jr. and Irene Elizabeth Fanning Smith. He has an older sister, Betsey, and a younger sister, Kitty. An older brother, James “Al” Alexander, died as a child in 1964. Growing up, Smith lived in Florence and Union, South Carolina. He attended the College of Charleston, receiving a B.A. in Urban Studies, and then received a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Clemson University before moving to Miami Shores, Florida, in 1984. In 1987, Smith started dating Carlos Guillermo Rodriguez-Mendez, and the two remained together until Rodriguez-Mendez’s death from AIDS in 1995. Smith served as warden at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Miami, Florida, from 1986 to 1988. In 1993 Smith ran for Village Council in Miami Shores and lost, but joined the planning commission. In 1996, Smith moved back to Charleston, South Carolina. He founded his real estate brokerage, CSA Real Estate Services, as the first openly gay-owned and operated brokerage in the area. In 1998, Smith was one of the founding members of the Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a social justice organization dedicated to education and advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ community. He also served as a board member for We Are Family, an LGBTQ youth organization, and the Lowcountry Gay & Lesbian Alliance. Smith ran for the South Carolina House of Representatives in District 119 as a Democrat in both 2002 and 2004, losing to Republican incumbent John Graham Altman III. Smith served as a Charleston County Planning Commissioner and as a member of the West Ashley Revitalization Commission. In 2015, Smith married Robert J. Suli, Jr.