THE BLACK EXPERIENCE: Through the Lens of Rudy Smith

BLACK EXPERIENCE THE

THROUGH THE LENS OF RUDY SMITH

THE BLACK EXPERIENCE THROUGH THE LENS OF RUDY SMITH

WORKING TOGETHER TO TELL NEBRASKA’S AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY One of the ironies of Rudy Smith’s 45-year career with the Omaha World-Herald is that he arrived not as a prospective employee, but as a protester.

It was 1963, a watershed year for the Civil Rights Movement. The 18-year-old Smith was among the local residents picketing businesses that discriminated against African Americans. The World-Herald was faulted for its lack of black employees, and Smith was one of the people hired as a result.

Later he became the first black employee in the newsroom and an award-winning photographer.

Church members at the African American settlement of DeWitty, Nebraska, circa 1910.

Smith created a number of iconic images of major events, but that is only part of his work’s historical significance. Even as he photographed the news and famous people of the day, he also made a point of capturing the community’s smaller moments. He wanted the World-Herald’s readers to see each other’s humanity in spite of the artificial barriers of race. In doing so, he used his considerable photographic skills to create an enduring portrait of the city.

History Nebraska eagerly partnered with The World-Herald to publish this book.

We preserve and share black history through our publications, connecting people with the past at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln and on our website, using artifacts, photos, historical markers, and the collections of our library and archives. Search “African American” at history.nebraska.gov to learn more, and follow History Nebraska on social media to keep up with events and educational programming.

We are inspired by people like Smith, who as a young man became involved in civil rights work because he loved the community and wanted it to live up to its stated ideals. You can see that love in his photography. With that in mind we are pleased to endorse The Black Experience through the Lens of Rudy Smith.

Trevor Jones, Director/CEO History Nebraska

CONTENTS 4 7 8 40 64 76 92 110 124 134 144 164

ABOUT RUDY SMITH INTRODUCTION NORTH OMAHA CIVIL RIGHTS EDUCATION CHILDREN PEOPLE SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH CROWNS MUSIC SPORTS FAMILY

Title page: Crowns, 2007 Left: Rudy Smith, 2008

REBECCA GRATZ PHOTO

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher, the Omaha World-Herald.

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ABOUT RUDY SMITH Rudy’s beginnings were humble. He entered the world Jan. 6, 1945 in the broom closet of a white hospital in Philadelphia. His mother, Lovely, had left Jim Crow Georgia during World War II for what she had assumed would be a better life up north in Philadelphia.

When Lovely showed up at a Philadelphia hospital deep in the throes of labor in 1945, she was told that she was at the wrong place and directed to a black hospital that was too far away.

Lovely wound up delivering Rudy inside a janitor’s closet there.

His father abandoned the family after he was conceived and his mother moved him and his seven siblings to Omaha, where her sister lived. They were raised in the 19th and Paul Street neighborhood in “a Southern-style shotgun house” whose holes they “stuffed with rags, papers, and socks.” His mother remarried but at the age of 16, his stepfather died in a construction accident and his oldest brother went into the military. Rudy helped his mother and the family fostering a deep sense of service that led Rudy to volunteer his time outside work to causes important to him.

He was 13 when he went to Denver to see a magnetic young preacher from Georgia with a booming voice and a prescient message. That voice belonged to Martin Luther King Jr. He became active in the Omaha NAACP Youth Council.

The group held sit-ins, walked into Peony Park and protested outside the old State Theater on 15th and Douglas Streets, where blacks could sit only in the balcony. The national NAACP would issue marching orders, and Smith and the others marched. At one point, he was youth director for a seven-state NAACP region.

4 | RUDY SMITH

In Omaha, he joined leaders Dr. J.C. Wade, Sr. Rev. Z. W. Williams and Rev. Rudolph McNair marching outside downtown businesses with white-only labor unions.

One company opened its doors and invited Smith in. That was The World-Herald. And Smith, an 18-year-old Central High School senior, was given a job as a copy messenger becoming the first black employee in the newsroom.

He became a darkroom technician and taught himself photography. His skills helped put him through then-Omaha University. In college he remained active in the NAACP and was elected a student senator. He lobbied to get the university to pressure nearby landlords into allowing black students to rent apartments. He asked for the university to start teaching black history and to hire more black professors. He was honored for his work rallying students to support a merger of Omaha University into the University of Nebraska system.

“MY WHOLE PURPOSE OF COMING HERE (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD) WAS TO OPEN DOORS FOR MINORITIES. SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE. SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT. SO WHY NOT ME?”

WORLD-HERALD PHOTO

— RUDY SMITH

Above: Rudy Smith joined members of the Citizens Coordinating Committee for Civil Liberties (4CL) in protesting the Omaha World-Herald’s hiring practices in 1963. Smith was hired as a result. Top: Rudy in 1966. Facing page: Rudy in 1964.

RUDY SMITH | 5

SMITH SAID BEING THE FIRST FULL-TIME BLACK EMPLOYEE IN THE NEWSROOM WASN’T IMPORTANT:

“WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO ME IS THAT I’M NOT THE LAST.”

He graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1969 earning a degree in journalism. He was the first black graduate of the communications school and later became the first black faculty member in it.

Rudy was employed at the Omaha World-Herald for 45 years.

His work documented life in Nebraska, Omaha and in his black community. He was as committed to pointing out injustice and wrongdoing as he was to showing the good and the mundane.

In 1971, Rudy Smith compiled a collection of his photos to express how he saw other blacks. The collection, “Black is Me,” ran May 20, 1971 in the Omaha World-Herald.

In October 1971 Smith worked with World-Herald writer Harold Cowan to take a look at the face of extreme poverty in Omaha. His photographs have been exhibited at black colleges, universities and museums around the country and appeared in national publications including Time, Look, Ebony and Sports Illustrated. Smith won numerous photography awards.

Smith retired from The World-Herald in 2008. The last year Rudy was at the newspaper will also be remembered for the election of Barack Obama, the country’s first black president.

While attending Central High School, Rudy met Llana Jones.

Rudy and Llana married in 1967. Rudy was a college junior and four years into his job at The World-Herald. Rudy and Llana were the parents of three children — Rudy Jr., Shannon and Quiana. The children joined him on some of his photo

6 | RUDY SMITH

Above: Rudy in the mid-1980s. Top: Rudy in 1971. assignments. “They met so many famous people from being with their dad,” Llana said. “They never got too starstruck.”

Smith served on a state affirmative action advisory committee, pressing for minority employment, training and retention in state jobs. He served under three governors: Bob Kerrey, Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns.

A longtime member of Salem Baptist Church, he helped launch a retirement home and the Salem Food Pantry.

He served as trustee chairman, ordained deacon and Sunday School teacher. He was chairman of the board at the Great Plains Black History Museum and the founder and former state chairman of the Nebraska Black Republican Council.

He died in his Omaha home Dec. 5, 2019 after receiving a surprising and devastating cancer diagnosis. He was 74.

INTRODUCTION The goal of this book is to capture precious memories as well as the scope and latitude of the rich heritage, culture and diversity of the black race that I have lived and experienced.

The images captured and exhibited represent the 45-plus years I’ve spent behind the camera and sometimes in front of it. The majority of the images were captured in Omaha, Nebraska, where I grew up and experienced most of my vibrant years as a photojournalist for the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.

The images capture historical events and people of color: statesmen, the elderly, the poor, educators and ministers, as well as musical stars and sport icons.

The many years have resulted in images showing the highs and lows of life — tears, despair, joy and disappointments.

CHRIS MACHIAN PHOTO

The black experience is very rich and has contributed to the vitality and growth of this country.

Black people living in America are the only people who were brought to this country in chains and had to fight for their freedom and way of life.

I endured hardship growing up, overcoming homelessness, bigotry, racism, poverty and other things that challenged me and prepared me for today.

God has blessed me with the gift of photography and a life long enough to see my people progress in ways I never could have envisioned.

Enjoy the book. I hope you find it informative and inspirational.

INTRODUCTION | 7

In 1971 with the help of the Near North YMCA, Rudy Smith, Andre Davis and Bertha Calloway conceived the idea of the Stone Soul Picnic.

The festival brought thousands of black people together on the Fourth of July at Carter Lake for barbecues, games, music and exhibits.

8 | NORTH OMAHA

NORTH OMAHA •

“I have found from my dealings with persons from all walks of life that we can look upon the subject matter as human beings, without fear of them.

This is a big step toward learning to love them, understand them and respect them and their way of life.”

— Rudy Smith

NORTH OMAHA | 9

During a daylong presidential campaign tour of Nebraska, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy abandoned his traditional speech and invited questions from this audience near 24th and Erskine Streets in North Omaha. Kennedy was in Nebraska campaigning for the May 1968 Nebraska Democratic presidential primary. Two weeks later Kennedy was mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

40 | C I V I L R I G H T S

CIVIL RIGHTS •

Black people have faced many storms in their lives, but they never lost faith during difficult times.

The modern civil rights movement began in the 1930s when black people sought equal rights under the laws of the United States. Some authors trace the modern civil rights movement back to 1919 or the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896.

I got involved in the movement in 1963, when I joined the NAACP Youth Council in Omaha, Nebraska. My involvement led to the youth council participating in marches, pickets, sit-ins and boycotts to protest conditions we felt were discriminatory.

There were similar efforts all across country for equal rights and justice.

The struggle continues. — Rudy Smith

C I V I L R I G H T S | 41

In 1964 more than 200 people — blacks and whites, spread out for four blocks — sang songs and chanted as they marched south on 16th Street from North Omaha to downtown.

The demonstration, organized by the NAACP Youth Council, was held to show support for equal rights for blacks living in the South. Pictured south on 16th Street near Capitol Avenue are Teresa Hudgins and Robert Page holding the front banner and Teresa Sterns Danner and Orville Jones holding the second row banner.

Photographer Rudy Smith, enrolled at Omaha University at the time, was active in the organization leading a seven-state contingent of the group.

C I V I L R I G H T S | 43

Rudy Smith’s job as a World-Herald photographer placed him in the action, like when the night editor sent Smith to cover the 1969 race riots on North 24th Street.

As he shared in a 2013 World-Herald article written by Erin Grace, “They gave me a hard hat.

I didn't want to wear a yellow hard hat.”

So he didn't. He parked the newspaper car at 20th and Clark Streets, walked three blocks and began taking pictures of a burning building.

Two National Guardsmen approached him, guns drawn. Smith identified himself as a photographer.

“They didn't care,” he said. “They put a gun to my head.”

Smith thought they would shoot him. He saw Mayor Gene Leahy standing a half-block away and called to him. Leahy called everyone over.

The mayor happened to be with the Nebraska National Guard adjutant general, who told Smith that he was trespassing and that his guardsmen would have a right to shoot him. The guardsmen escorted him out of the area, and he returned to his office.

The next day his photo of a vacant house on fire at 23rd and Paul Streets ran in the newspaper, showing firefighters and rifle-toting guardsmen silhouetted against the flames. The Associated Press picked up the photo and it appeared in newspapers across the country.

“IT WAS MY FIRST REAL TASTE OF WHAT TRUE JOURNALISM WAS ALL ABOUT.”

C I V I L R I G H T S | 55

This bunch, from Lake School, was symbolic of the groups who turned out to welcome Bob Gibson home to Omaha on Oct. 16, the day after he was named World Series MVP in 1964.

6 4 | E D U C AT I O N

EDUCATION •

Higher education opportunities for black Americans were nonexistent during the period of slavery and hard to come by for many decades thereafter.

As Frederick Douglass showed, education empowers individuals, but even black people with degrees were denied opportunities in the Omaha Public Schools district until the 1950s and ’60s. The first permanent OPS teacher was Eugene Skinner, who rose to become the assistant superintendent of the school system.

Now in 2019 we have a black OPS superintendent, Cheryl Logan, and a black school board president, Marque Snow.

Omaha’s segregation policies prevented for decades the employment of blacks at OPS. Finally, education has created opportunities and upward mobility for all.

— Rudy Smith

E D U C AT I O N | 65

Foster grandparent Mary Singleton helps Annette Shannon dab some glue on a piece of paper, Oct. 19, 1974.

76 | C H I L D R E N

CHILDREN •

In the early 1990s, Rudy Smith was given an assignment at a small school in western Nebraska. He remembers pulling up to the building, stepping out of his car and seeing the children run to the window, pressing their hands and faces against the glass. To them, Smith was no ordinary visitor.

Before that day, they had never seen a black man in person.

Rudy had a way with children. His gentleness, kindness and compassion made children comfortable around him. Whether on the playground, in the classroom or in their homes, Rudy captured their joys and struggles.

C H I L D R E N | 77

“GOD USED THE EYES OF RUDY TO CAPTURE OUR LEGACY, OUR HISTORY, OUR CHILDREN.” — REV. DR. GREG WILLIAMS

78 | C H I L D R E N

Mary Singleton invited several children to pick and eat peaches in her backyard in September 1970. The harvest was over and the tree bare — except for one peach. Wayne Jones spotted it.

He dragged out a ladder, climbed into the tree and snatched the last peach to enjoy.

C H I L D R E N | 79

Dizzy Gillespie, a jazz trumpet player noted for the way his cheeks billowed out when he played, entertaining at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Sept. 13, 1972.

134 | M U S I C

MUSIC •

Music inspires people and the roots of our music go back to Africa.

Black music in the United States arose from the African American experience during slavery. The slaves used singing, dancing and the drums to motivate themselves and express their feelings, religion, cultural tradition and sense of being in day-to-day life.

The black musical traditions grew into jazz, the blues and gospel — forms of music that are enjoyed all across the world and performed by people of all cultures.

I have had the pleasure of hearing the greats from New Orleans to New York and photographing many of them. It has been a wonderful experience.

People like Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, B.B. King, James Cleveland, Gladys Knight, Ray Charles and the list goes on and on.

The black experience and its rich music have no equal.

— Rudy Smith

M U S I C | 135

138 | M U S I C

“AS YOU CAN SEE BY NOW, MY ONLY DISCERNIBLE STYLE IS THE USE OF A LOT OF BLACK, IN SUBJECT MATTER, TEXTURE AND IN THOUGHT.”

Above: Delta Blues Great Bo Diddley.

Facing page: B.B. King closed his eyes and let his guitar sing during a performance at the Orpheum Theater in 1985.

M U S I C | 139

Rocket Roger Sayers, right, lunges to pick up a gold medal in the 60-yard dash at an Omaha University meet, Feb. 25, 1961.

144 | S P O RT S

SPORTS •

In Omaha, it wasn’t hard for a photojournalist like me to find great black athletes.

From Omaha urban neighborhoods came: Powerful Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals; the fluid Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers, the youngest player ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Bob Boozer, an Olympic gold medal winner and NBA star who’s in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame; and Marlin “the Magician” Briscoe, the only Omaha University (UNO) player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and, most notably, the first black starting quarterback in the National Football League.

Not to mention Johnny “the Jet” Rodgers, Heisman Trophy winner in 1972; ABA basketball player and ironman Ron Boone and other great Omaha athletes such as Roger Sayers, Fred Hare, Mike McGee, Maurtice Ivy, Phil Wise, Jerry Parks, Preston Love Jr., Johnny Nared, Rodney Wead, Ahman Green, Bobby Bass, Mel and Roy Washington and Curlee Alexander.

I witnessed male and female, young and old, good and not so good.

The pure enjoyment of these athletes, practicing or competing, can never be overlooked.

— Rudy Smith

S P O R T S | 145

Mary Singleton with her great, great niece Quiana in 1977.

1 6 4 | FA M I LY

FAMILY •

I have been blessed to have been born into a family that has shown me love and respect and demonstrated the best way to live a good and moral life.

I likewise have attempted to pass these principles on to my family.

My mother was born in Statesburg, Georgia, and was not allowed to go to school but raised us as kids to value family and education.

My own family consists of my spouse, Llana Marie; two sons, Rudy Jr. and Shannon Frederick; one daughter, Quiana, as well as 16 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. We have many relatives and other extended family members who we enjoy sharing time with.

In this chapter are many memories, in captured images, of my family.

We are all blessed with our own talents. We have ideals of what life is about, and with influences from others and life’s experiences we grow.

Hopefully these images will shed light on the varied experiences we shared as a black family that loved one another through many failures and successes.

— Rudy Smith

FA M I LY | 165

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

EDITOR Kristine Gerber

For many years I have thought about doing a book. I realized that it was time to share my photography in hopes of inspiring a new generation of black photographers.

I wish to thank my wife, Llana Smith, for her support.

I also thank God for His constant support and guidance. I am grateful to former Omaha World-Herald co-workers, family, friends and fellow colleagues and professionals for their assistance in making this book happen.

I follow in the footsteps of black professionals like 1940s-1970s filmmaker and photographer Gordon Parks, Ebony and Life magazine photographer Francis H. Rudy and Llana walking down the steps after seeing the Mitchell, Jet magazine’s Sacred Heart Cathedral in Paris in 2017.

Mark Crawford, Baltimore Afro-American journalist Moses Newson and photojournalist Ernest Withers. These brothers paved my path and encouraged me to be fearless as I covered the struggle. My goal was to make the media, the Omaha World-Herald in particular, reflect the everyday life of black people.

Working during the civil rights era changed me from being an onlooker to being a participant.

As I look back on my career, I am grateful that I lived long enough to see the movement’s fruits.

176 | AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S & C R E D I T S

DESIGNER & DIGITAL IMAGER Christine Zueck-Watkins COPY EDITORS Paul Goodsell Rich Mills Sheritha Jones Stu Pospisil Thad Livingston PUBLISHER Todd Sears A special thank you to Llana Smith, Preston Love Jr., and Eric Ewing for their help in getting the book completed.

Published with support of the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation via the Geraldine A. Brady Publishing Fund in memory of Lynn R. Brady and Geraldine A. Brady

The family would like to thank the nurses at Immanuel Hospital who took care of Rudy in November 2019. This was Rudy’s last photo.

Special effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information for each photograph. However, information written on the back of photographs may not have been exact. For historical accuracy, we welcome corrected and additional information which we will include with the photo in our digital and paper archives.

Please send changes to the Omaha World-Herald Newsroom Book Editor 1314 Douglas Street, Suite 700 Omaha, Nebraska 68102-1811

With a career that started in 1963, the year Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, and ended in 2008, right after Barack Obama was elected president, photographer Rudy Smith had the unique perspective of living, making and capturing history.

The Black Experience through the Lens of Rudy Smith highlights his work chronicling Omaha’s African American community.

Rudy Smith in 2006 (above) and in the early 1970s (right). $29.95 ISBN 978-1-7322317-9-5

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9 781732 231795 $29.95

| OWHSTORE.COM

published with support from

“THERE ARE GENERATIONS COMING AFTER ME THAT WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, HOW THINGS CHANGED AND WHO WAS INVOLVED IN CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE OF OMAHA. I WANT THEM TO HAVE SOME KIND OF DOCUMENT THAT STILL LIVES AND THAT THEY CAN POINT TO WITH PRIDE.” — RUDY SMITH