Gateway to Success: Celebrating the Legacy of Rudy Smith, a Pionner in Civic Journalism

James Knowles CULTURE EDITOR

Rudy Smith was born in the broom closet of a whites-only hospital. He died in a city that he helped desegregate.

If one were to craft a Nativity story for pre-civil rights America, it might look strikingly similar to the circumstances of Smith’s birth. His mother had fled Jim Crow in Georgia for Philadelphia in the North, itself plagued with racism. The hospital she came to after going into labor, its own twisted Bethlehem, rejected her for the color of her skin. Unable to leave the building in time, let alone make it to a hospital that would treat her, she was forced to give birth to the celebrated photojournalist and civil rights activist in a closet — a birthplace as humble as Jesus’ manger.

Smith, a lifelong Baptist and eventual deacon at Salem Baptist Church, might have distanced himself from the messianic comparison, yet his life was one of wholehearted service and continual broken ground for Omaha’s Black community.

Smith experienced racial oppression from the literal moment he was born. Thirteen years later, after his family moved to Omaha, his desire to fight that oppression was ignited when he heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak in person. Smith’s activism blossomed from the seed that had been watered that day and planted at his birth. He joined Omaha’s NAACP Youth Council, and before long became the youth director of a seven-state area. Smith was also active in protests with the 4CL (Citizen’s Civic Committee for Civil Liberties). One such protest concerned the Omaha World Herald’s racist coverage and tokenistic hiring practices.

In response, the paper’s production manager encouraged Smith to apply for a job, and the 18-year-old high school senior was soon hired.

He worked in various non-reporting roles at the World-Herald until a higher-up asked him if he knew anything about cameras. He responded in the affirmative, and was given a position as a photographer.

“He hardly knew what a camera looked like,” Smith’s wife Llana said in an interview with New Horizons. Regardless, he quickly taught himself the trade while working as a darkroom technician. This confident moment proved to be one of the best decisions of his life — he stayed at the World-Herald until his retirement. He was the paper’s first Black journalist.

Smith was also the first Black graduate of UNO’s School of Communication. He was incredibly active throughout his time at the university, continuing to work with the NAACP, writing for The Gateway, becoming a student senator, and co-founding SCOPE (Student Community Organization for Public Efforts).

SCOPE was originally aimed at supporting the merger of Omaha University into the University of Nebraska system, and was also the university’s only mixed-race organization at the time. In North Omaha, the group helped organize Robert Kennedy’s 1968 campaign for the

CONTINUE STORY ON PAGE 18

‘INSIDE-OUT’ CONTINUATION, pg. 2

the facility,” which makes bringing in outside materials complicated. He had to email someone at the prison to print off any documents he needed, and he wouldn’t have any handouts if that person were sick that day.

The students’ final project was to write either a play or a newspaper in groups of four. Outside student and former Gateway editor-in-chief Molly Ashford used her experience as a journalist to put together the “inJustice Report,” featuring pieces written by her group members as well as an article from the Flatwater Free Press, which allows other outlets to republish their stories.

Inside student Ben wrote an article covering a volleyball game at the prison, and Pendley said Ben has some other writing that may get published soon.

“[Ben’s article] is like Hunter S. Thompson, it’s got some gonzo journalism to it,” Pendley said. “He’s really talented.”

Hemmer’s group wrote “As Time Goes On,” a play about Gary, an inside student who’s been incarcerated for decades. Unfortunately for the production but fortunate for Gary, he missed the performance because he was promoted to work release before the last week of class. Another inside student, David, stepped in to play the part.

“We thought, ‘Dang, the star of our play isn’t going to be at our play,” Hemmer said. “But of course everyone was happy for him.”

Pendley is teaching the course again this semester, and he said there is interest in future inside-out courses in programs like history, theater and Black studies.