Phil Smith Oral History Interview

1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Buster Wortman, Democratic Party, education, gambling, Madison, mob, organized crime, politics, Venice

“Phil Smith Oral History Interview,” Madison Historical, accessed May 12, 2025, https://madison-historical.siue.edu/archive/items/show/504.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

In this oral history interview, Phil Smith describes growing up in Venice, Illinois, in the 1950s-1970s. He discusses organized crime and gambling in the city, the Democratic Party, and the police. He also describes his career as an educator and changes in the schools over time, including changes that accompanied racial integration in Venice and Madison. Finally, Smith describes his work with the Venice Historical Society and efforts to preserve the city's history and traditions.

Madison County Oral Histories

• education
• Venice
• Madison

October 18, 2016

• Madison
• Venice

English

• Oral History

• mp3
• pdf

• 00:58:15

Thomson-Sasso, Lesley

Smith, Phil

Edwardsville, Illinois

44.1 kbit/s

• 1950s-1970s
• Venice, Illinois
• Madison, Illinois

• Smith-Phil-O-001