Robert Lloyd Smith Part 2
Robert Lloyd Smith changed the name of the VIS to the Farmers Improvement Society (FIS) and began organizing branches throughout Texas. Smith served a member of the Texas House of Representatives in 1894 and 1896 where he introduced bills authorizing land purchases for Prairie View College and outlawing lynching and election fraud. While still in public office, Smith began attending national conferences with other black leaders, and eventually served as an aide to Booker T. Washington. He corresponded regularly with Washington and borrowed many of his ideas to try out in Texas. Smith later served as deputy United Sates Marshal, headed the Negro Extension Division, served on the board of the Jeanes and Slater Foundation with Andrew Carnegie and Booker T. Washington, and served as first president of the National Negro Business League. By 1911, the high point of the FIS, it claimed 12,000 members in 800 branches across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The start of the Great Depression signaled the beginning of the end for the society.
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