Reminisce on Omaha World-Herald photographer Rudy Smith [Video]

Rudy Smith, who was the first full-time Black employee in The World-Herald’s newsroom, began his career the same year Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

During his 45 years as a photographer, he captured politicians, football stars, musicians and community leaders.

Being the first — and the only — Black employee was hard. It was three or four years, he said, before another Black person was hired in the newsroom.

Smith started as a copy messenger at the age of 18. He taught himself photography while a darkroom technician at the paper. He put himself through college by working at the paper, and became the first Black graduate of the College of Communications at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Smith always loved taking pictures, but working for The World-Herald was more than that for him. With a career that started in 1963 and ended …