Alfred Emanuel Smith set two precedents in the presidential election of 1928, which he lost to Republican Herbert Hoover. Smith was the first Roman Catholic candidate for president from a major party, and he won a majority of votes in large urban areas. Big cities had traditionally been won by Republicans, but that trend was reversed by Smith in 1928, and Democratic presidential candidates continued to win in large cities through much of the twentieth century.

Smith was born on December 30, 1873, in a tenement (rental apartment) in New York City. His father, a veteran of the Civil War (1861-65) and owner of a small trucking firm, and Smith's mother grew up in the same New York City neighborhood. Smith attended Catholic schools and developed a reputation as a strong speaker. A month before completing the eighth grade, however, Smith dropped out of school to work as...