James Alfred Smith Senior (born May 19, 1931) is the Pastor Emeritus[1] of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California.
[3][2] He graduated from Kansas City's R.T. Coles High School in 1948[1] and obtained a license to preach that same year.
[2] He married Joanne Goodwin in 1950 and began as a student pastor at Mount Washington Baptist Church in Parkville, Missouri, in 1951.
In 1975, Smith received a Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Smith was named senior pastor of Oakland, California's Allen Temple Baptist Church in 1971.
In 2012, he became the first chair of the Council of Elders for Oblate School of Theology's Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership in San Antonio, Texas.