New Street Sign Acknowledges Smithfield’s First Black Mayor

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

On March 19, Smithfield residents acknowledged the contributions of the town’s first Black mayor when it unveiled an honorary street sign reading “James Chapman Way.”

The recent unveiling ceremony follows a street renaming effort which began a few years ago and culminated in the Town Council renaming Quail Street on May 27, 2024, after Smithfield Mayor James Chapman, who made history by being appointed mayor in 1990, was elected the town’s first Black town councilman in 1978. The new honorary brown metal signpost is located in Smithfield’s Lakeside Heights neighborhood off Great Spring Road.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Smithfield Mayor Mike Smith.

Quail Street was among the first streets in Lakeside Heights to be paved under an initiative Chapman spearheaded during his 19-year tenure as mayor.

“His leadership was a beacon of light that guided us to a more just and inclusive future,” Town Councilwoman Valerie Butler, Chapman’s cousin, said at the recent unveiling ceremony. “James loved this town.”

The Rev. James Harrison of Main Street Baptist Church said Chapman opened the door for other achievers.

In addition to securing state funds to pave unpaved roads in Lakeside Heights, Chapman also spearheaded the construction of the town-owned Smithfield Center, which was funded with a partial grant from Smithfield Foods and completed in 2000 at a former shopping center on North Church Street. Chapman is also credited with renovating the council chamber inside the event center, which is named in Chapman’s honor. Chapman also helped the town receive its first $1.4 million state Community Development Block Grant to begin the process of relocating residents in the Pinewood Heights neighborhood behind Smithfield Foods’ meatpacking plant from an area that is now being transformed into a town-owned industrial park – a project that’s still ongoing.

“Mayor Chapman was a very active member of the town’s community, and we are in a better place because of him,” Smith, the town’s mayor, said.

Chapman, a World War II Navy veteran, died at age 96 in 2022. He was born in 1926 in a house that once stood where the Route 10 Bypass now crosses through town, and lived much of his life in Lakeside Heights on Hillcrest Drive. Chapman joined the Navy, was discharged and returned to Smithfield, where he began to work with his cousin, in Richard Pretlow’s funeral home, which would later become Pretlow & Chapman Funeral Home. Chapman retired at age 91 in 2017.