Robert Lee Smith was Macon's first black attorney. He graduated from Ballard Normal School in Pleasant Hill and worked for the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company. Smith worked in the office of attorney E.L.Wheaton until he passed the bar exam. He was president of Smith-Cain Realtors and a trustee of the Steward Chapel AME Church. Robert Lee Smith is buried in Linwood Cemetery Macon Georgia.