An enthusiast of American literature and writing, Smith pursued English study throughout her education. After being enthralled by James Baldwin's novel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" she resolved to become an expatriate writer, but due to her interest in social movements in the 1960s, she resigned herself to literature studies at home. She pursued graduate study in literature in an attempt to seek out women writers of color, but came to terms with the fact that the American literary canon did not include Black women. After reading in a "Ms." article that Alice Walker would be teaching a course on African-American women writers, Smith enrolled and vowed to teach women writers of color whenever she taught. She began doing so at Emerson College in 1973.