Perry M. Smith was the Chief Grand Mentor of the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor, an African-American fraternal organization best known as the sponsor of the Taborian Hospital. Around 1938 Perry persuaded the Mississippi Jurisdiction of the order to build a hospital in the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. To pay for it, each member paid an annual assessment into a hospital fund. In addition, Smith visited sharecroppers and tenants on plantations throughout Mississippi to raise funds. Beulah Ecton Woodard was an African-American sculptor and painter in California who specialized in African subjects. The first African American artist to show her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she founded the Los Angeles Negro Art Association (1937). Bronze bust of Perry M. Smith wearing a coat, shirt and tie. Plaque on sculpture base: Sir Perry M. Smith / International Chief Grand Mentor / of the Knights and Daughters / of Tabor
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