Otis Wesley Smith, M.D., was born and educated in Atlanta. He attended Ashby Street Elementary and Booker T. Washington High School. He graduated from Morehouse College, from which he had received a partial academic scholarship. He became the only Pre-Medical student in the history of the school to earn four letters in sports: Baseball, Track, Football, and Basketball, … the record still stands. He attended Meharry Medical College with funds provided by Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone With The Wind." After completing an internship and residency at Homer G. Phillips, he returned to Georgia and became the first African-American Board Certified Pediatrician to practice in the State of Georgia. In 1967, he chaired a committee of the Atlanta Medical Association to enforce the implementation of the Desegregation of Hospitals. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the order to desegregate all hospitals in the country.