Charles Spencer Smith (March 16, 1852 – February 1, 1923) was a Canadian-American bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and politician, serving in the Alabama Legislature.

Exposed to the work of the Sunday School Union there, he proposed that a similar organization be established for the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

[2] Smith's first post was in a school in Louisville, but due to threats from the Ku Klux Klan, he removed to teach in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

While in Illinois, he worked as an agent for the Sunday School Publishing House established in Chicago by David C. Cook, which was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

[3] In 1882, Smith founded the Sunday School Union of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville and served as its treasurer and the corresponding secretary until 1900.

[4] His wife died on July 28, 1885, while visiting her sister in Jackson, Michigan[3] and three years later, in December 1888, Smith married Christine Shoecraft, a teacher, originally from Indiana.

[6] In 1900, Smith became a bishop and was assigned to the Twelfth Episcopal District, which included the Ontario and Nova Scotia Provinces of Canada, Bermuda, Windward Islands, and South America.