Atlanta, Georgia

The seeds of storytelling were planted in prize-winning journalist and author Vern Smith as a boy growing up in Natchez, Mississippi. He began his journalism career at the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram in California, and then joined Newsweek as a correspondent in its Detroit bureau. Vern returned to a changing South in the 1970s, and as a correspondent and Newsweek Atlanta bureau chief wrote about investigations that led to convictions in some of the nation’s most horrendous racial crimes, including the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. As a reporter with Newsweek’s Special Projects Unit, he contributed to four cover stories that were later published as books, including “Charlie Company,” recipient of the 1981 National Magazine Award. His novel, The Jones Men, republished by W.W. Norton in 1998, was a New York Times recommended book. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Sunday Times of London, GEO, Ebony, and TV Guide. Vern was a contributor to My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience (May 2004), published as part of the Voices of Civil Rights project.

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