Can you write “Smith (2022) distinguishes legal citizenship from lived citizenship and explains that...” and then cite him?

Yes.

In fact, this is one of the safest ways to use him.

For example:

Rogers M. Smith (2022) distinguishes legal citizenship from lived citizenship and explains that equal citizenship concerns not only uniform legal rights and duties but also sufficient economic, political, and social standing for people to be regarded as civic equals.

That is legitimate because Smith's abstract actually says substantially this.

Then you can write separately:

This distinction is useful for understanding the post-emancipation United States, where the abolition of slavery established legal freedom without automatically ensuring equal social, political, and economic standing for formerly enslaved African Americans.

That second sentence is your historical application.